Child protection projects

Another important project – “EduSafe” – implemented in Bulgaria, Romania and the Republic of Moldova, aims to protect children in educational facilities. This is done by a multi-dimensional approach targeting different stakeholders at all levels: Teachers and educational staff are informed about all aspects of potential abuse, violence and bullying and trained to apply child safeguarding principles and measures in their daily work. Parents of children from day care centres as well as from partner schools and kindergartens benefit of counselling sessions on prevention of abuse and violence so as to improve their good-parenting capacities. Children are sensitised about violence in general and topics like bullying at school, abusive behaviour and neglect in particular. They are also encouraged to speak about their experiences, their thoughts and understanding about violence, signals of abuse and wishes regarding a safe environment at school and in the day care centres. An important finding of this project is the timeliness of child protection topics in institutions and in families. Schools and kindergartens need more support from governmental level to entitle professionals to provide feedback on cases of violent behaviour against or among children. Children lacking adequate support are at a high risk of poor performance and early school drop-outs. This project also included a study visit of 12 CONCORDIA professionals from Bulgaria, Romania, the Republic of Moldova, Kosovo and Austria who travelled to Hungary and visited four organisations, thereof one state-run institution, that are active in the field of child protection, the work with children victims of abuse and children with problematic behaviour as well as with those coming from ethnically marginalised families (Roma). This exchange was an outstanding opportunity for CONCORDIA professionals to get insights on how other organisations and institutions address the topic of child protection and children’s rights and to further increase their knowledge and capacities for their daily work. 

Stronger families, stronger children

Strengthening foster families and community-based care as an alternative to institutional care is the focus of a project implemented in the Republic of Moldova. Within “Stronger families, stronger children” young people are taught about their rights to protection and development and strengthened in their capacities to participate in their individual development plans. Foster parents and pedagogues from residential placement services participate at workshops on improvement of parental capacities with regard to trauma informed care and prevention of neglect and abuse. They increase their knowledge on how to support the children in developing their communication skills and to become emotionally mature. As a result, the children improve their resilience to stress and develop independent life skills. The project also includes a cooperation with the Social Assistance Services from eleven counties in Moldova. Through workshops with CONCORDIA experts the practitioners from family-type services improve the tools on monitoring and evaluation of the children in the services.