4th EUROPEAN REGIONAL MEETING

Dear Ladies and Gentleman,

Today meeting with you presents a big interest, being a very actual one that allow us to activate our multilateral relations.ion should direct us on obtaining and finding of lucrative ways of cooperation between representative members of our countries.
Also, I would like to point out that the purpose we have to face is a very difficult one.
We all know that in Moldova the economic decline affects seriously most of the population. The phenomenon of poverty and misery becomes general; corruption and crime keep spreading. And as there are clever and less clever, hard working and less hard working, honest and less honest people in our society, the same situati
I think that the main purpose of our discusson is in the legislative and executive areas (meaning the Parliament and Government).
We will never have a perfect system of governing, as long as we have a corrupt society which suffers of totalitarianism.
There are a lot of problems that our society has to face, problems like: taking the reforms way, the EU integration process, to take a way of a real democracy.
A genuine democracy requires first of all personal responsibility. That’s why, before changing the humanity let’s try to become ourselves better.
There is no way for our country to become civilized and rich without civilized and honest people living in it.
The migration of our women abroad has spread throughout our country. It’s a disease typical for a society that judges a person by the things he/she owns; disease that makes victims.
Nobody keeps track of those woman who went to work unofficially, who intend to follow the way of prostitution; no one gives oneself a deal trouble to know how many of them didn’t come back home.
This problem is no longer an individual one, but becomes a general-national one.
A problem with such importance should be widely discussed, but people hardly say anything on that matter; more than that- they keep in the shadow the fact that from all the unemployers we have in our country 68% are women.
Representing 53% from our country’s population, our women have limited access in taking decisions in society, family, at work etc.
For example, statistic research showed that 61% of questioned women have recognized that in their case man is the “head of family” and only 10% of them own the main role.
So, we have to deal with gender problem. We have to recognize that there is no low that would forbid women’s discrimination in working areas, family, social protection, education, public and private contracts spheres.
This gap represents a serious obstacle for such a low system that can ensure a real equality between genders.
The idea of gender equality is a generous formula, but they don’t know if it will work in our society, where birth rate was in a constant decrease in the past few years. Undoutedly, in such a situation, it’s worth to impose an extencion of the women-mother social protection. The pays that these women receive: 8 minimal salaries for the first birth chilled, 6 minimal salaries for the second born chilled & 1.8 minimal salaries for child’s care by the age of 1,5 are detriments for our women.
On the other hand, our woman is prepared for the market economy. According to the recent statistics the financial situation is better in the families where the woman is the leader
Human rights for all genders are a very sensitive issue in all countries in transition, including the Republic of Moldova. The absence of human rights is more than a denial of human dignity; it is also at the root of poverty and violence, delaying social development or making it impossible.
Human rights guarantees lay the foundation for the social solidarity a country needs to overcome poverty during the lifetime of a single generation.
All these facts together & many others guided us to the idea of founding our organization. ABPW is a nongovernmental organization which started its activity on August 1998. The hardship of difficult times we live in most of the part falls on women’s shoulders. That’s why the main goal of our organization is to offer them ways of outrunning and overcoming at least partially the difficulties they have in their everyday lives.
We plead for authentic equality between men and women, family consolidation, protection of children’s rights, development of scientific, technical and artistic creation, the rebirth of spiritual and morel values, conservation of folk traditions.
A big problem that our society has to face is to take care of children that remained without parents. In this case a lot of children are educated by the street laws.
The central statistics office gives us an official information that in 2004, 25000 of children have remained without parents or custody.
Daily 10 children become orphans,10% of children have spent their live in regional and local boarding –school.

All these are the result of the poverty. Poverty has many facets- malnutrition, diseases, lack of learning opportunities, even violence against the children and women. The shortest way out of poverty and to the country prosperity is investment in children. Healthy correctly fed, stimulated for development at full potential, protected against child diseases and raised in a loving and stimulating environment, children will become healthy adults, productive citizens and good parents.

But for the moment, the development of young children in Moldova is constrained by lack of education opportunities, absence of their parents that went abroad and limited parents’ knowledge of chilled care and early stimulation.
The statistics shows:
1. 17% of children of 0-7 years old have stunted physical growth, children from rural area being most affected.
2. Every fourth child of 3-4 years old cannot name any color.
3. Every tenth chileg of 5-7 years doesn’t know any geometrical figure.
4. Half of the children in the study suffered more or less serious accidents and traumas.

Insufficient physical, cognitive, psycho-social development of the children is mainly caused by inadequate nutrition and hygiene and lack of stimulation for development in the family.
According to the results of the study, many parents from Moldova lack basic knowledge and skills on chilled care and development.
Some very sensitive areas are:
· Nutrition- early introduction of cow milk in child’s alimentation (47% of the children under 6 months receive cow milk) and later insufficient intake of meat, fruit, vegetables and dairy products.
· Hygiene- incorrect hand washing practices (40% of children of 4-7 years old don’t wash their hands regularly before meals after using WC)
· Child health- parents do not know when to seek immediate medical assistance.
· Development- communication with children is insufficient and play as an element of development is neglected.
· Security- every fifth parent admitted leaving the child unsupervised.

Indicators for child development are relevant for the perspectives of economic and social development of a country. This is a due to the fact that investments in child development at earliest ages bring enormous long term benefits – development of citizens to their full potential, poverty eradication and assurance of human rights respect.

All these are a cruel reality that we , women-wives and women-mothers have to face, we have to fight foot our rights and for a better future for our children.
We have a chance to change the world by shaping a New Europe, we can do it because all the miles of hard road are worth a moment of true happiness.
Together we can make the road to rise to meet us, and make the wind be at our back.

Angela Chicu
President of APWM

Project

Meeting

Arhives