The History:
Casa Sperantei 'The House of Hope' is a community centre in Cosnita town, Dubasari district, about 30 km north of Chisinau. The Centre was initiated in January 2006 by Galina Codreanu, a social worker who identified a need for a community centre in the area. She gained the support of the Ministry for Family and Social Protection and secured initial funding from a German organisation to set up the project. The Centre's original proposal included providing therapeutic services for children with disabilities, young people at risk and older people. Due to a lack of funds, the Centre could only work with older residents of the area and had to put the rest of their plans on hold.
The Project:
Now, Moldova Vision has agreed to fund the expansion of the Centre and Galina's dream of a fully equipped service-centre for the whole community will be realised. The mayor of Cosnita has donated 2 acres of land to the project and construction work is already underway. It is envisaged that the new Centre will be completed by September 2008 and will be operational by later in the year.
Why work in Cosnita?
Part of the Centre's new scope will be to assist vulnerable children in the village: 'This project is coming to help children in at risk situations, children with disabilities and the under-privileged. Through realising the project's goals and objectives, the children will benefit from emotional support, recuperation activities (especially for the children with disabilities), and activities which will stimulate them and which will show them that they are useful in society and are worth and have the right to be happy.'
Galina summarises the social problems in her area: "The difficult social-economical situation in the Republic of Moldova , has reduced the living conditions and quality of life for the majority of the population; the children have been especially affected. This fact is more accentuated in the rural regions. Thus, in the regions of the district Dubasari, which is a conflict region, many children don't have a generous fate or a happy childhood. Many parents are abroad to seek employment, or are indifferent to their children, and in this way the children stay with their grand-parents, with relatives or by themselves."
