The Island
Clipa Siderala
The Island Clipa Siderala
Chisinau 2010
The Island
Clipa Siderala
Content
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ORGANIZATION „CLIPA SIDERALĂ”.................................................................................. 3 1.1 1.2
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CHILDREN AND YOUTH SITUATION IN MOLDOVA ....................................................... 6 2.1 2.2
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PROBLEM DESCRIPTION ..........................................................................................................6 EXISTING POLICY ....................................................................................................................7
PROJECT THE ISLAND ............................................................................................................ 8 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6
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MISSION AND AIMS .................................................................................................................3 PROJECTS OF CLIPA SIDERALA ...............................................................................................4
TASKS OF THE PROJECT ..........................................................................................................8 DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT ................................................................................................8 POPULATION THAT WILL BENEFIT FROM THE PROJECT ............................................................9 EXPECTED PROJECT RESULTS.................................................................................................9 FINANCING ........................................................................................................................... 11 DURATION OF THE PROJECT .................................................................................................. 11
SWOT (STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES, OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS) ANALYSIS: ........ 11
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1 Organization „Clipa Siderală” 1.1 Mission and aims Clipa Siderala is a charitable, non-governmental, non-political, non-profit and non-religious organization which started its activity in 1989 and was officially registered in 1996. It is a member of the National Youth Council of Moldova. In 2004 the organization was awarded with a certificate acknowledging its contribution to the society as a socially useful organization by the Ministry of Justice. Since the beginning it has taken the initiative in providing shelter and charity support for children and youth who are in difficult social situations and extremely vulnerable to the threat of present economic situation in Moldova, where poverty remains widespread, especially in rural areas. Among the most important aims of Clipa Siderala are: providing social and recreational opportunities for orphans as a mean of mainstreaming them into society; moral and material support for children in vulnerable situations and crisis; implementing youth services and community awareness activities; promotion of healthy lifestyle; promotion of volunteer spirit and community involvement in Moldova. Clipa Siderala is largely self-sustaining. It is organized and daily led by local Moldovans and raises the main part of its financial support from within Moldova. Additionally, the organization provides services and activities that engage middle-class and well-to-do Moldovans and therefore directly supports the needs of children living in poverty. Among such activities are arranging holiday visits to children’s homes and orphanages throughout the country and organizing annual summer and winter camps “Sparta” in Romania and Ukraine (Crimea). The case of Clipa Siderala is the most instructive one for developing localized components that can lead to long-term and sustainable solutions. In its 20th year of operation, it is largely self-supporting and is not affiliated with either external political or religious organizations. There are 6 permanent staff members in the organization. For the project “The Island”the following persons are involved: 1. Salavat Jdanov – chairman of the Clipa Siderala. More than 30 years of working experience with children. He organized and operated in camps for children, festivals, and sport competitions. Higher education in pedagogy and sports. 2. Sergei Mocanu – 25 years of experience in the private classes with children of different ages. He has been teaching subjects like Russian
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language and literature, physics, geography and technical disciplines. Academical background in technical sciences. 3. Silvia Braducan – involved in the management of pedagogy and youth and children activities in Moldova for 25 years. She has been a president of Youth and Children Association. Education in the domain of bibliography library issues. 4. Vasilii Mudrenco – higher education in Electricity industry. More than 5 years of experience in engineering (installation of elevator and escalator equipment) and 3 years construction and installation of antenna-feeder systems. All the projects and activities attract many volunteers. Many of them have been working for Clipa Siderala more than five years.
1.2 Projects of Clipa Siderala Since 1989: Annual International Children’s Festival of Friendship, Sports and Arts for children from Moldova and other countries. Goal: To foster intercultural exchange between children from different countries. Since 1996 until 1999, in 2003: Weekly TV broadcasts for children and teenagers on the National Television of the Republic of Moldova. Goal: To improve the life of children and to promote healthy and active lifestyle. Partners: Ministry of Education, National Olympic Committee, The Coca-Cola Company, The Reebok Corporation, Moldova-Agroindbank, The ASITO Insurance Company, The National Television of the Republic of Moldova. Social Impact: It has been estimated that in 2003 in the TV-Show there have participated 485 children in teams, 85 individual participants and over 3.000 spectators (children and adults). Participants’ age: 13-15 years. Participants have represented 92 Moldova’s regions as well as other countries like Ukraine, Baskiria, Russia, Italy, Germany and Canada. Since 1997: Organizing summer and winter camps “Sparta”. Goal: To improve the health condition of orphans from Moldovan boarding schools. Social impact: Annually, the ,,Clipa Siderala” invites 80 orphans (age 8-15) to spend a part of their summer vacations in a camp by the seaside of Crimea and winter vacation in Romania.
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Since 1998: “Christmas Caravan” – a charitable action which takes place every year. It is organized on the eve of Christmas holidays and it is a trip to around 30 boarding schools and orphanages of the Republic of Moldova. Goals: To raise awareness of the problems of orphans and children without parent’s guardianship and to involve pupils, organizations and volunteers in organizing Christmas and New Year shows in the boarding schools and orphanages. Social impact: The campaign “Christmas Caravan” visits annually over 30 Moldovan orphanages. This campaign is a magic fairytale with artistic performances, games and presents. Annually over 4.100 children on both banks of the Dniester River feel loved and is taken care of on Christmas Eve due to the Christmas Caravan. Since 2002: Clipa Siderala runs Academy of Moş Crăciun (national Santa Claus). Goal: To give people more information about Moldovan Christmas traditions, to organize Christmas and New Year’s events for children and to ensure the work of Moş Crăciun Postal Service, involving young people in these activities. Social impact: Over 8000 letters have been received, addressed to Moş Crăciun, written by children aged 2-18 years old, from all the country’s regions. Every single letter has been answered by volunteers on a specially designed Moş Crăciun letter blank. Children from vulnerable families received presents that they had asked for and several children have been offered to improve their health in the summer camp „Sparta”. Since 2006: Information Center in the framework of the charity campaign “The Addresses of Kindness” has been established. Goal: To collect and publish data about children from socially vulnerable families from all over Moldova and information about their welfare and living conditions. ,,Clipa Siderala” is trying to find people or companies that could help them in solving their vital needs. Since 2006: The project “Professional Orientation” was launched in schools-orphanages of Moldova. Goal: To open various craft groups in the schools-orphanages, thus directing teenagers towards a profession (shoemaker, gardener, designer, musician, hairdresser etc.) and to help young people to be able to face the rough challenges outside the orphanage’s doors. Social impact: The successful runing of this campaign will have helped over 10 000 to learn new and useful skills that will be needed after leaving the schools-orphanages. This program will promote integration of the young coming from schools-orphanages into the job market and civil society as a whole.
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2 Children and youth situation in Moldova 2.1 Problem description According to recent data of UNICEF, due to economic migration at least 29 per cent of Moldovan children live without one or both parents, and this number is increasing. In 58 boarding schools around Moldova, approximately 100-500 children in each, there are more than 8 643 children isolated from the world and deprived of family care. They are part of the society - sick, humble in our understanding, but still a part. Many children in Moldova's state institutions have been placed there by their parents, motivated by grinding poverty, alcoholism, or other family problems and encouraged by a paternalistic state. According to official figures, more than 90 percent of the children in Moldova's state institutions nationwide have at least one living parent. How strange it may sound, but children from orphanages say that they wish to create a family in the future, but in reality they turn their own children into orphans when they return to real life due to lack of experience with upbringing. Recently the economic situation in Moldova has worsened. The care of orphaned children has deteriorated. Children in the orphanages and reformation centers are at risk of nutritional deprivation, insufficient medical care, and general neglect due to inadequate caretaker ratios. Packed into poorly heated, poorly ventilated buildings, growing children are faced with a wide range of challenges and deprivations. The lack of adequate education, physical exercise, nutritious food, adult supervision, or medical and psychological services result in a host of unfortunate outcomes for institutionalized children. The loss of spiritual and moral orientation and the alienation from culture and art are only a few of these negations. One of the ways how to participate in solving this problem is the innovative organization of leisure of children and youth as well as providing them with friendly accommodation. Not only school education, but also free time is an important tool for shaping the personality of young people. The use of free time is a unique indicator of a country’s culture. It reflects the spiritual needs and interests of a particular individual young man/woman or whole social group. Unfortunately, due to socio-economic problems of the country, there is lack of adequate number of cultural and educational institutions as well as there is the need to continuously enrich the content of such institutions, their methods of operation and necessity to find new innovative approaches. Thus, the development of educational, cultural and leisure facilities, characterized by the transition from the existing situation to constructive creative solutions, is among the top priorities.
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2.2 Existing policy The main aim should be to help more children experience the fostering of personal family care instead of the isolation and neglect that can occur in current state orphanages and reformation centers. European Union is currently the major supporter financing the program TACIS II in 2007 with 2.5 million Euros for the first year, which was developed to create a family-like and alternative environment for Moldovan orphans. Social workers gave financial aid to families, helped them to renovate their homes in order to provide better conditions for the children, and even purchased cows so the families could have fresh milk hereby directly reducing the number of orphans staying in state institutions. It is based on a similar, EU-funded program in Romania that helped to remove more than 27,000 children from state institutions between 1999 and 2006 and placed them with their parents or in foster homes. A legal base was created to improve the situation in the field of orphanages and boarding schools – “Government decision regarding the adoption of national strategy and the action plan of reforming the boarding school system in what concerns the childcare for the years 2007-2012”. But since its initial funding ended, the Moldova program has largely come to a halt. The state provides minimal financial aid to families who take their children back - about three Euros a month, plus an annual payment for school supplies and discounted utilities rates. Families that agree to take children in foster are eligible to receive 50 Euros a month. Most families agree this assistance is far too little, barely enabling them to provide bread for the children. By contrast, a recent non-governmental study financed by the EU determined that Moldova spends about 2400 Euros a year for each child living in state institutions. The situation in Transnistria is even worse and the Transnistrean children receive less. Taking into consideration these financial preconditions, children are not being taken away from state institutions. Hereby there is an urgent need to work on the creation of places that could provide family-like educational environment, cosy accommodation as an alternative for current state financed boarding schools and colonies replacing real family. Clipa Siderala wants to initiate a project called “The Island” to ensure such an environment for children and youth from Moldovan boarding schools and reformation centers.
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3 Project The Island In 2008 “Clipa Siderală” created a project called “The Island”. It will be a centre in Hirjauca (about 70 km far away from the capital of Moldova – Chisinau) for about 60 school-age children with a difficult character, coming from Moldova’s boarding schools and reformation centres for minor criminals, where they will live, learn and socialise. The main objective of the planned centre is a socio-educational and rehabilitative institution that will promote development of individual creativity of children and youngsters from poor segments of the population. Creation of educational and rehabilitation institution “The Island” will promote development of individual creativity of children and youngsters, coming from Moldova’s boarding schools and reformation centres for minor detainees.
3.1 Tasks of the project “The Island” will provide 60 adolescents with a friendly and family-like environment where they will live, socialize, learn crafts and work that will allow them to find their place in the society after leaving the centre. Special pedagogy of mentoring and acquisition of educative, working, cultural and sportive dimensions will be fundament for functioning of the centre to promote self-identity and development of personality that at a later stage could positively influence the attitude of a person towards the law and society.
3.2
Description of the project
The project will be a newly made centre for about 60 school-age children and adolescents (both girls and boys), also with difficult character, coming from Moldova’s boarding schools and reformation centres for minor detainees. “The Island” centre will consist of several buildings – 8 friendly looking houses, dining house, bath and laundry house, central heating house, administrational, cultural and educational centre, greenhouse as well as a farm. All the buildings will be built by using natural, ecologically pure and energy saving materials. They are going to be equipped with modern, energy saving technologies and there will be used such renewable energy sources like biomass, photovoltaic and solar energy. Among the most important aims of “The Island” will be to provide social adaptation by addressing the immediate psychological, educational, rehabilitative, and health needs of the most vulnerable children and youth in Moldova. The main activities in “The Island” will include education and professional courses and creative
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work based on special social pedagogy (mentoring). Adolescents in the centre will be involved in such community events like volunteering, all sorts of meetings, art and cultural events as well as sports. Living and learning in friendly looking premises, children will get used to family atmosphere. The content of provided activities and environment in “The Island” will be educational, creative, recreative, healthy and sportive. The centre will be built in a way that children can learn also housekeeping and many other skills – for example house building, cultivation, nature protection, arts, computer skills, communication, etc. – that will be extremely useful for a completely independent life after they leave the centre and it will positively influence their character and personality.
3.3 Population that will benefit from the project The children will also have a chance to participate on daily works in a sanatorium for elderly. It will have impact on their work experience and will also bring benefits to the working staff in sanatorium. The indirect beneficiaries of this project will be all inhabitants of the village Hirjauca, taking into account the fact that “The Island” will be open for everyone on Sundays with the possibility to use the library, computer class or culture and sport premises and equipment.
3.4 Expected Project Results The results of this project will help to achieve some of the UN Millennium Development Goals established in the “UN Millennium Declaration” from September 2000. In detail these will be: Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day
Target 1b: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people
Target 2a: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling
Target 7b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving a significant reduction in the rate of loss
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Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
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Target 8f: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications
Short-term results: 60 children and adolescents coming from boarding schools and reformatory centers will receive: 1. Comfortable and nature friendly accommodation in compliance with sanitation norms and standards 2. Equipped workrooms to learn crafts and gain professional skills 3. Premises where they will learn household skills 4. Healthy environment close to the nature 5. Social and pedagogical care and programs that will develop personality and improve some aspects of their behavior Long-term results: The reintegration center will positively influence the Moldovan youth in these fields: 1. Social integration 2. Education level 3. Crime level 4. Employment level 5. Poverty level 6. Family strength 7. Regional development 8. Global warming 9. The nature Quantitative indicators for measuring whether the stated objectives and results have been achieved: 1.At the moment 60-70% of the youth from reformatory centers upon leaving the center have a tendency to commit a crime or confront with the law repeatedly mainly due to lack of appropriate skills, experience, self-confidence or courage. Adolescents in the centre will explore the family roles, professional skills and develop their talents and abilities which will preclude the tendency of the adolescents to get involved in such activities. Therefore any progress in statistics (reduction of repeatedly committed crimes, alcoholism, drug abuse) will mean that the objective of the project has been achieved. 2.Today there are 8.643 children in state institutions growing alienated from the family environment. The center will constantly provide accommodation and
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educational place for 60 children and adolescents. Therefore a reduction of the number of institutionalized children and the provision of an alternative will also be a measurable outcome of the project. 3.The project promotes an equal opportunities-driven approach to the reform of the professional education and training for persons from socially vulnerable groups at the national level. The increase in number of adolescents having professional skills in a particular field will be a tangible result of a successful realization of the project.
3.5 Financing It is planned to attract international funds and financial instruments (Government of Japan, Government of Netherlands, Government of Poland, Government of Norway, World Bank, IBM Company and others) to realise the first and second stage of the project – building of “The Island” and arranging the premises. The third stage – daily functioning of the center – will be financed partly by the cooperated institution (the sanatorium for elderly) where the children will be participating on a daily basis, partly financed by the state of Moldova and also by “The Island” itself. Children will have the opportunity to work at the sanatorium – cleaning, cooking and looking after old people. In “The Island” children will cultivate fruits and vegetables as well as have their own farm to ensure the basic needs – food. There will be also local and international volunteers involved in order to support a day-to-day running of the centre.
3.6 Duration of the project The project will be realized in 3 stages. Stage I – building of the centre which should be accomplished between 2010 and 2011. Stage II – equipping and arranging the buildings of the centre. This will be carried out between 2011 and 2012. Stage III – daily running of “The Island” will start in 2012.
4 SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis: Strengths: The Island will be the first social-education-accommodation centre for adolescents coming both from Moldovan boarding schools and reformation centers
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created with the aim to provide social adaptation by addressing the immediate psychological, educational, rehabilitative and health needs. Weaknesses: The idea is innovative in Moldova and there is a lack of existing similar projects that could serve as a positive example for the building of The Island. Opportunities: Transnistria is one of the countries enabled to receive ODA (Official Development Assistance) from several governments to solve existing social problems of Moldova. Taking into account that the problem of abandoned children and their inability to adapt to the requirements of job markets and law is at the top of children and youth related topics in Transnistria and Moldova, it is a unique opportunity to attract international funding and financial instruments to work on solving the problem. Threats: Current financial crisis and the thereby caused reduction of funds for development assistance may cause additional efforts and time to acquire finance resources for the implementation of the project.