Pridnestrovie and UNICEF join forces against child abuse

Government officials from Pridnestrovie met with UNICEF in Tiraspol Thursday to plan ways of fighting child abuse together

TIRASPOL (Tiraspol Times) - Ray Virgilio Torres, the Moldova-based head of the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, met with government officials from Pridnestrovie during an official visit to Tiraspol this Thursday to discuss child abuse problems and ways to solve them.

During the meeting between Pridnestrovie and UNICEF, the United Nations official assured the unrecognized country of his support for improving the conditions for children. Pridnestrovie and UNICEF also agreed to start a series of joint programs which will draw on the organization's experience from other Eastern European countries in solving similar problems.

The meeting was organized by Pridnestrovie's Health Ministry and also counted local government officials and representatives of IOM, the International Organization for Migration, among its participants.

Health Minister Ivan Tkachenko identified a series of issues that need to be tackled, including parents who abandon children in foster homes and drug abuse during pregnancy.

Moldovan-based UNICEF head Ray Torres, photographed in Tiraspol, wants to start a formal, permanent cooperation with the Pridnestrovie's government.

" - The problems, which the representatives of the public health system in Pridnestrovie spoke about, are not impossible to solve," said Ray Virgilio Torres.

" - UNICEF will do everything in order to improve the situation," he assured. According to Torres, it is necessary that the collaboration takes place on a regular and permanent basis. A new meeting with UNICEF is being planned for the near future, in order to set up the framework for the joint operations.

UNICEF collaboration important, health minister says

Pridnestrovie's Minister of Public Health and Social Protection, Ivan Tkachenko, expressed hope that the meeting would not only throw light on the problems that children face in an unrecognized country that is not yet a formal part of the international community, but also that it could outline concrete steps for finding solutions to these problems.

" - Collaboration with organizations such as UNICEF has important value for Pridnestrovie," health minister Tkachenko also added.

Due to nearly two decades of territorial conflict with Moldova, Pridnestrovie is not yet a separate member of the United Nations, and there is no permanent UNICEF representation in Tiraspol. Since early 2005, Pridnestrovie - which is more commonly known in English under names such as Transnistria or Transdniester - has included a wish for United Nations membership in its so-called foreign policy objectives, a set of formal guidelines elaborated by Parliament to instruct the republic's Foreign Ministry on how to carry out its work and how it sees the small country's place in the world.

" - If we as a society strive for stability, then we must do everything that we can to ensure that every child is brought up within a family unit, and, preferably, in its own family," said health minister Ivan Tkachenko during Thursday's meeting in Tiraspol.

" - Today, many young families require financial aid," he added, "and we need to find ways of providing this at any cost, since the protection of motherhood is a priority task for any country."

Low birth rates and malnutrition

Government-compiled statistics released at Thursday's conference show that over the last four years, birth rates have gone up 28% from a low of seven births per 1000 inhabitants to a still-low number of nine births per 1000. This equals some 4,900 new Pridnestrovians born each year.

Over the past four years, infant mortality has dropped in nearly half. Nevertheless, a majority of newborns show low birth weights and weakened immunity systems, according to reports unveiled at the meeting with UNICEF. Some of these problems are compounded by malnutrition and an income level which is comparable to that of Moldova, but far lower than the rest of Europe.

The government of Pridnestrovie believes that the problem can be addressed with an improvement in overall living standards and a gradual eradication of poverty, and has called on Moldova to once and for abandon its repeated attempts to undermine the economic situation in Pridnestrovie. Moldova, which still remains opposed to the independence of Pridnestrovie, walked out from status settlement talks in late February 2006 and has since applied a policy of coercion and sanctions towards its smaller and 'de facto' independent neighbor.

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