Community Home Opened in Ialoveni District

A Community Home – a social service for persons with disabilities – opened in the village of Hansca, Ialoveni today. The service was established within the district Directorate for Social Assistance and Family Protection, supported by Keystone Human Services International Moldova Association (Keystone Moldova ) through its Community for All – Moldova program.

A Community Home represents an alternative to residential care, providing persons with severe disabilities access to all community-based services and thus offering them a much higher quality of life. The service is meant for adults or children with mental disabilities who require constant protection, care and specialized assistance. Thus, each Community Home is serviced by a support team made of the director, social workers, a health professional and a cook.

Hansca Community Home hosts six boys taken from the Boarding house for children (boys) with severe mental disabilities  of Orhei. They began living in this home   in June this year and have already shown progress in development.

Mihai got acquainted with all the neighbors quickly and says he wants to become a priest because he likes the church. He is the one who usually meets guests at the door, and if he likes them he sees them off when they leave and gives them his own hand-made flowers. He hides the flowers courteously behind the back and offers them in a theatrical gesture. Being highly responsible, Mihai participates in all the work in and around the house.

“Once upon a time / There was a pretty girl…”, recites Sergiu, the most poetic and contemplative of all the boys. If he feels he can trust you he will recite you poems in a loud voice and then wait for applause. He has learned to crawl in his knees recently, but he will need an operation to walk.

Victor is all just a big bright smile all over his face. He is very sociable, open to everything new; he trusts everybody and is always happy to help. He only pronounces vocals, but his mimics and gestures are so expressive it is easy to understand what he is trying to say. He is the only one of the boys who had gone to school, and he enjoys telling how he raised his hand and wrote on the blackboard in chalk.

Andrei has learned to count and likes coloring. He is the singer of the Home – he knows a whole lot of songs both in Romanian and Russian. He is always joyful and willing to communicate.

“Are you coming tomorrow?”, asks Ion, who has made much progress. He has learned to hold his head up without help and now tries to sit up. He has become active; he shows his emotions willingly, pronounces more words and likes being the center of attention.

Ion –a different young man who shares the same name – has become more sociable, can maintain eye contact, participates in group activities and has even started to sing.

The community, in its turn, gets involved in the boys’ life: village children come to play with them; the woodsman has taken them to the forest; they go to church; the mayor’s wife comes to visit and brings them presents.

The Community Home as a social service acts under the Framework Regulations and Quality Standards developed by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family (MLSPF) with the support of Keystone Moldova and approved by the Government in 2010. Each Community Home is created based on a social design which depends on the beneficiaries’ specific needs. Beneficiaries are placed in the service by decision of the Committee for the Protection of Vulnerable Children and the district Directorate for Social Assistance and Family Protection.

Keystone Moldova support reform the social protection and care system for persons with disabilities to ensure their social inclusion by means of its Community for All – Moldova program which is implemented jointly with MLSPF, with the financial support of Open Society Mental Health Initiative and Soros Foundation – Moldova.

Româna