Keeping foster families safe and together in Moldova this winter

A guest blog from Dr Liliana Rotaru, Director of our partner CCF Moldova

Soaring inflation – currently at 34% – an energy crisis, and war in neighbouring Ukraine have put a huge strain on Moldovan families. Despite the rising costs of food and fuel, earlier this year, foster families were still receiving the same amount of money to look after vulnerable children in need of protection. The difficult economic conditions have been causing untold stress for many of these families, who are desperate to keep helping their children, but unsure how to make ends meet.

Thankfully, our partners CCF Moldova, who have been working alongside the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, were able to launch a voucher scheme to deliver top up vouchers to all foster families, to help them through the current crisis.

“By distributing these top up food vouchers, we’ve been able to help reduce the level of stress and possible negative coping strategies for these families.  Not only that, but we’ve helped avoid the worst possible outcome for children – to be removed from foster families, who can no longer afford to care for them”

CCF Moldova Director, Dr Liliana Rotaru

Thanks to all our generous supporters, the vouchers will help pay for food and save money for bills. They’ll enable families not only to buy more nutritious food, but will also leave a little room for fun – the holiday sweet treats or small gifts that every parent wants their child to enjoy at Christmas.

The voucher scheme has been warmly welcomed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. On 11 October, ministry representatives joined our Moldovan colleagues to hand out vouchers to families in two counties and then posted a short article on their website (in Romanian).

All families have responded very positively to the scheme

This is what active family support looks like. Read more on how we keep families together.