Moldova Foster Care

Mariana Pintilie decided to become a foster parent after seeing on TV a social spot on the subject. Since then, four years have passed. In addition to her two biological children, she takes care of a little girl. She remembers that the girl has called her mother since the first day. “We, taking and passing all the steps with our children, didn’t think it was actually so different with other children. But they are affected: they did not see a TV, furniture or believed that food was going to be over and they were continually eating everything,” says Marina Pintilie, parental assistant.

Alexandra also chose to become the mother of a little boy. The woman says she became parental assistant because she had so much love she wanted to share with those who did not know what maternal love meant. “No one took him, his mother refused him, like his grandmother. I’ve taken him in my family. Within 8 months he felt the parental warmth that he had not,” recalls Alexandra Mihai, parental assistant.

In Chisinau, there are 42 foster parents, caring for 50 children. However, this figure is too small, authorities say. “Foster parents are trained and evaluated. Evaluation is done not only for the person who becomes foster parents, but for the whole family of the foster parent. Professional parents may take from 1 to 3 children, except when brothers. If there are 4 brothers, then we have no right to separate them,” explains Olga Zaharia, manager of the foster care service.

Since 2000, in the capital, 170 children have been educated and cared in foster families.”