Testimonials of children victims of sexual abuse

Unofficial File contains the testimonials-file of six from hundreds of children, victims of sexual abuse, assisted by the International Center "La Strada", starting with 2010. Through these testimonials, the collection reveals the problems of the child protection system and the lack of action from the side of the professionals. According the specialists, in the majority of cases the victims’ profile is the same: the children come from families with a low income; they are brought up by only one parent or relatives; they do not have money for the bare essentials, being forced to take care of themselves. The seventh, Another File, presents the testimonials of a "happier case", at least showing how to act in a basic and adequate way.

Unofficial File was launched on May 24, during the Press Meeting "The state fails in front of sexually abused children" of the Investigative Journalists' Club. The participants to the Club arrived to the conclusion that the serious cases of sexual abuse could be prevented if the responsibles for the child protection did not neglect the serious problems that dozens of children face day by day in Moldova. 

According to the executive director of the International Center "La Strada", Ana Revenco, the Moldova system is built in a way to answer the system’s needs, and not the needs of the child; and the specialists are focused on registers and statistics rather than the real problems of the children. "The state keeps failing. The specialists ignore the situations of risk the children are in, as well as their needs. Children need to be listened, heard and helped at their first request; get affection and be protected. The specialists’ inteview is frequently limited to filling in a form about the family financial situation, but nobody asks the question about what the child really wants", mentioned Ana Revenco.

Rodica Coretchi, the representative of the National Center for Prevention of Child Abuse, mentioned several times that the specialists from the child protection area motivate their lack of actions by the fact that they didn’t have the parental consent to interview the children. And this is in the context of the legislations that clearly states that "if the abuse takes place in the family, the parental consent is not required. The specialist is obligated to identify the problem, not to judge."

On her turn, the communicator and the blogger Diana Guja, who wrote the testimonials from the stenographies of discussion with those children, pointed out that "the system is not changed by the system, but by us. Children wish a normal life, they wish to have a job, a family."

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