specific needs of children and elderly left behind as a ... - IOM Moldova

Psychological and social effects of migration
hind can find help: social workers, psychologists, the employees of Child
and Family Protection Departments, police officers and members of the
Local Council for Children Rights Protection.
According to them social workers have: “To support them, to identify their
needs: clothing, nourishment, a shelter if they don’t have one… If children
are alone they are offered the possibility to call their parents, to ask them why
they do not come” (FG_C_2_rural).
A number of respondents referred to services provided by a psychologist,
stressing their importance for children whose parents are working abroad:
“I’d like to talk to a psychologist, but a foreign one” (FG_C_2_rural). Experts
confirmed that children left behind address to psychologists: “Children
whose parents are abroad address psychologists when they experience difficulties
with their interpersonal relations, if they have conflicting situations
or if they have problems” (FG_EC_urban). Interviewed children aspire towards
quality psychologist’s services, they appreciate confidentiality and
the feeling of security: “We have a teacher of psychology and it is true that
she knows things and she can provide support but it depends on the kind
of problem. For example, I can’t talk to her if I have an intimate problem”
(FG_C_2). Some children even dream to become psychologists: “I want to
become a psychologist. I like studying people, their way of being, of thinking
and talking… We are all so different! These specialists are required in a lot of
schools as they have to help children...” (III_C_18).
Experts justified the need to expand psychological support networks
saying that “The psychologist could work with these children, providing
them with training, to help them avoid stressful situations and to see what
their daily problems are, to see what worry’s them; and if there’s a 3 rd grade
child who is already smoking that means there is someone who negatively
influences him” (FG_EC_rural); “I think in every school there should exist
a psychologist who should work in an out-of-school room where the child
would be able to visit him. Because if I go to a psychologist and he helps
me I can visit him tomorrow and the day after tomorrow and so on and
I can tell other people that there a person who is ready to provide help”
(FG_EC_urban).
According to the study, children find support in their teachers: “My teacher
from the music school is the person who I trust the most and I’m sure she
will never betray me. She understands my situation and she told me that she
never met somebody like me” (FG_C_2).
The collected data shows that parents contact Inspectorates for Children
and the Police when they have a dilemma: “There are cases when parents
come to the Inspectorate for Children and share their intentions to migrate
and when a mother is leaving her adolescent girl and her husband drinks,
77