News from the field

Moldova Street work to identify Moldovan children in Odessa

16 Apr 2009

Odessa, Ukraine: Why Moldovan teenagers move to Ukraine? What is their real motivation? What kind of risk they face once arrived in Odessa? Many questions remain to be answered by the teams of the Ukrainian NGO ‘Way Home’ and the Delegation of Terre des hommes in Moldova.

Two profiles have already been identified. The first movement is traveller Roma families moving from Moldova to the touristic resorts of ‘Arcadia’, the sea side of Odessa. The main way of earning money is begging. The second profile is rather worrying: isolated Moldovan youngsters falling into delinquency and marginalisation, exposed to the worse health consequences. The injection of home made drugs ‘Boltuchka’ (a boiled liquid, a mix of industrial paint solvent and dry poppy) not only make the children fall into addiction but provoke neurological damages up to paralysis.

Up to the end of May, the mixed street work teams will be composed of both Ukrainian and Moldovan social workers to try to analyse the situation of children on the streets of Odessa. The understanding of the children movements from Chisinau and Tiraspol to Odessa will help to design better prevention activities of migration at risk in Moldova. In the same time, a regular exchange of information on individual cases would improve the protection activities once arrived in Odessa.

A 4-day round table was organised last week to cross check the information from both NGOs, from the point of view of the country of origin and the country of destination. ‘Way Home’ has been implementing street work for years all over Odessa, and they follow an average of 300 children in street situation. Tdh is working on prevention and child protection in Moldova since 2004. And the Swiss NGO is implementing return of Moldovan children from Moscow to Chisinau for the past 4 years. Today, a new transnational axis is open towards Ukraine to investigate the risks faced by the young Moldovan migrants.

An operational plan will be designed based on the first findings of the situation analysis to implement an adapted street work during the summer, from June to September, on the main touristic areas. A functional bridge between both countries remains crucial to better prevent unprepared migration risks and protect isolated Moldovan minors in street situation in a foreign country. [VT]