6:00pm Dinner - Speaker Introduced by Brian T is Neil Fraser on Maldova Project -Fellowship Allister H+Stephen M

Helping Children in Moldova

Neil Fraser from Portobello Rotary Club came along to tell us about an international project which his Club is supporting and seeking to gain matching grant funding for it.

It's being undertaken in Chisinau, capital of Moldova, under the leadership of Help and Homes for Children and its aim is, with Moldovan government backing, to reduce the dependence of the country on children's homes - still often called orphanages - by promoting awareness of the benefit of keeping children with families and developing skills and policies that will enable children's services to work constructively with families with problems and where appropriate place children and support them with suitable foster families.

Neil started off by educating us all as to where Moldova was located - with Romania just to the west and Ukraine to its north, east and south, we learned, and he reminded us of the reliance that Romania had placed on its 'orphanages' and the terrible conditions that had been found in them after the fall of Ceausescu.  Moldova wants to make sure it too can move away from any such situation.

Moldova itself is officially the poorest country in Europe - a typical wage is no more than roughly