March 3, 2016
Moldova
Opening ceremonies of two new social-health day centres took place in Stefan Vodă and Ceadîr-Lunga, on 18th and 22nd of February, respectively. Jaroslav Kvapil, the ambassador of the Czech Republic, Kateřina Šilhánková, who is a diplomat for development cooperation and business, Nocolae Molozea, the president of the Stefan Vodă district, Irina Vlah, the governor of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia and a Caritas CR representative were among the guests of honour.
Jana Kačírková, a representative of the Czech Development Agency, was also present at the ceremony, where she gave a motivating speech about the emotional benefits of nurses’ daily home care visits of the elderly. The health minister Ruxanda Glavan and a ministry of social affairs representative also attended the event.
Local public administration provided the premises for the centres, “Maria Magdalena” in Stefan Vodă and, “St.Pantheleimon” in Ceadîr-Lunga. It also undertook to cover all utility costs of the centres (water, electricity, gas, garbage etc.). LPA equipped the centres with furniture, technical equipment, consumables and medication. In addition to that, 18 volunteers and 10 employees including nurses, social workers and janitors took specialized training on home-care related topics at the end of 2015.
Both centres offer medical services which comprise injections and medication distribution, bandages, bedsores prevention, enemas, catheterization, massages, rehabilitation, inhalation, and measurements of bloods sugar, blood pressure and other indicators. As for social services provided by the centres, consultation and education assistance, provision of meals, assistance with daily hygiene, laundry, help with administrative tasks, shopping, walks, assistance in transportation, and, last but not least, spiritual 
support can be mentioned.
Caritas CR and its local partner Association Home Care strive to make it possible for the elderly to live a healthy, independent life as long as they can. Social workers and nurses attend those clients who require special care at their homes.
By the end of 2018, the centres will have provided social-health services to at least 1 350 clients in both of the cities and in 16 surrounding villages.
Moldovan media including Radio Moldova, a local news site (more here) and GagauzInfo TV reported on the event (for the report in Russian see here).
The programme Development of Home Care Services in South Moldova in the years 2015 to 2017 was supported by funds of the Czech Development Agency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the CR.
