HIDDEN AWAY MOLDOVA’S FORGOTTEN PEOPLE

Maria H Y Hansen

On a hill, an hour away from Moldova’s border with Ukraine, at the end of a long gravel road far away from society lies Moldova’s biggest institution for adults with mental and physical disabilities. Here live approximately 300 adults with varying degrees of disabilities, outside the small village of Bădiceni in one of Europe’s poorest countries, forgotten by the government.

A temporary home

Gate guarded around the clock, this institution is supposed to be a temporary home for people, before reintegrating into society. However, the graveyard just a stone’s throw away tells another story. Large institutions remain a part of society in Moldova, even 30 years after the fall of the Soviet Union. Despite Moldova’s efforts of deinstitutionalization in the last ten years, many people are still stuck in these large institutions without decent treatment and in conditions heavily criticized by the UN. The institution in Bădiceni is one of six remaning ones for people with disabilities.

Sharp criticism from UN

Moldova fails to live up to the UN convention they signed in 2007, ensuring the rights of disabled people. Several times the UN has strongly recommended Moldova close these remaining institutions and urged Moldova’s government to consider that people with disabilities should be equal citizens, and should be treated as such. Over-medicating, violence and neglect of patients are some of UN’s main concerns here in Bădiceni.

Help from the outside

The people in Bădiceni are mostly diagnosed with schizophrenia, intellectual disabilities, and dementia. Many of them have lived much of their lives in institutions, and very few have family, while those who do aren’t able to visit much.

Over the years NGOs have tried with more or less success to provide the institution with materials and resources to ensure better conditions for the people living here. Meanwhile, daily life continues in a repetitive cycle for these 300 people in Bădiceni.

Lack of rights for people with disabilities, poverty, and scarce resources in Moldova. These are some of the main reasons Elina continues to live in Bădiceni, and not with her son, who also now lives in an institution in Moldova.