Reintegration is the process of returning the child to his/her biological or extended family who was previously separated from the family by placing him/her in a specialized institution or other alternative forms of protection.
What is reintegration?
Reintegration is the process of returning the child to his/her biological or extended family who was previously separated from the family by placing him/her in a specialized institution or other alternative forms of protection. According to the laws of the Republic of Moldova, the placement of the child in an institution is temporary, and the competent authorities shall take appropriate measures to ensure the child a form of family-type protection (guardianship, adoption, professional parental assistance, family-type orphanage), if his/her reintegration into the biological and extended family is impossible (Law 140 “On the special protection of children at risk and children separated from their parents”).
In the reintegration process, CCF Moldova is focused on family support or cooperation with the biological or extended family in order to return the institutionalized child to his/her natural environment. Therefore, the individual approach to the family (according to which the intervention needs of each family are different) is the working principle in the reintegration process.
- Support provided:
- psychological counselling
- legal advice
- financial support
- mediation services for access to benefits or social allowances under the laws in force; to healthcare services; to community education services; to employment, etc.
No family overcomes its challenges overnight, that is why the child’s reintegration process takes time. It should be noted that the monitoring of the child’s and the family’s situation is an essential and even vital phase in tracking the progress of the reintegration. Monitoring includes regular visits, assessment of the well-being of the child and the family, identification of alarm signs and early intervention in order to ensure them a certain level of social normalcy. Only frequent monitoring can ensure the well-being of the child returned to the family and the constant success. Often the monitoring phase lasts up to 2 years, and in more difficult cases even longer.
Results:
From 2008 to 2020, CCF/HHC Moldova managed to reintegrate more than 1,504 children into their biological and extended families.
