The Psycho-Social Assistance Program for Children /PANDA/ is extended to other 4 regions of the country: Cahul, Causeni, Nisporeni, and Soroca. Thus, on 4-6 October, a training seminar was organized in Chisinau for about 40 persons selected for the position of moderator working with groups of children and adults.
PANDA is an educational program with therapeutic elements, designed for children and adults who are or live in the same environment with alcohol-dependent persons. The program is built around the experiences and needs of the child, rather than those of the dependent person, and contains a series of aspects related to family protective factors. The program is provided for free to children aged 6-18 and their non-dependent parents. During 15 weeks in a row, the participants will be involved in a series of educational activities and will be provided assistance during individual or group sessions.
Present at the event inauguration, Viorica Dumbraveanu, Vice-Minister of Labour, Social Protection and Family, mentioned that this program is innovative in the child protection system of Moldova: “We intend to develop the regulations of the PANDA Program and include it into compulsory settings implemented at the national level”.
“As the program also contains therapeutic elements, it is very important that the program beneficiaries are children and adults affected by another family member’s alcohol dependency. Thus, the program comes to encourage the child who is often frustrated, stigmatized in the community, and is discriminated in certain situations by his or her peers, enabling thus the child to develop self-assurance and be aware of the fact that he or she is not alone in such situations and that a family member’s vicious habit is not the child’s fault. We are very glad that specialists from various areas, in-charge of child protection, such as social assistance, health-care, pedagogy, etc., are participating in this training, which demonstrates that the program is based on an inter-sector approach”, underlined the Vice-Minister.
PANDA has been piloted since 2015 in Orhei region, and was positively appreciated by its beneficiaries and local public authorities. Since February 2016, the Program was extended to Falesti, Ungheni, Telenesti, and Calarasi regions, as part of primary prevention service provided by the local Social Family Support service to families with children. 170 children have benefited of the Program up to now.
PANDA Program is implemented with the support of Partnerships for Every Child, under the USAID-funded project Children in Moldova are cared for in safe and secure families implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family, Ministry of Education, and the local public authorities of 11 pilot regions.