Lumos Moldova to implement expansion of child disability services
08.04.2026
Lumos Moldova is set to implement a new UNICEF Moldova project that will significantly expand and enhance early intervention services for children with disabilities, reducing the risk of family separation. Over 2026–2027, the initiative will establish three new Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) centres and two new Early Childhood Development (ECD) offices across Balti, Chisinau and Rezina.
Lumos will also aid specialist recruitment, provide technical guidance and strengthen professional practice to enhance the support provided to children and their families using these early intervention services.
ECI services provide families with inclusive, community-based services accessible to children with disabilities. The services provided make a huge difference. An impact assessment found that 80% of children attending the Florești ECI Centre showed positive developmental progress, including 25% demonstrating significant improvements. Around 30% of previously non-verbal children began using speech, sounds, or alternative methods of communication; a similar share of children with mobility challenges improved physical function.
Over 25% of Moldovan children live in extreme poverty and the number of children separated from their families is rising. The institutionalisation of children leads to irreversible harm to their development, disproportionately affecting children with disabilities, who already face heightened risks of abuse and neglect. Poverty, low awareness and knowledge of what to expect in terms of children’s development amongst parents, combined with insufficient and unevenly developed services at a community level to early detect and address physical or learning disabilities are the root causes of high disability rates in young children in Moldova.
The expansion of ECI services through this UNICEF Moldova project will help ensure greater equity for families who live in impoverished or hard-to-reach communities that do not have the funds or other resources to access the specialist services that children with physical or learning disabilities need. We know that children belong in families and the support provided by ECI services enables more children to remain living with their families.
-Marcel Straton, Lumos Moldova Country Director.
The project is designed to further strengthen and sustain the country’s ECI system of services to improve outcomes for young children with physical or learning disabilities and reduce the risk of family separation.
Lumos co-developed the innovative model for ECI services in Moldova and this model has been endorsed in the Government’s National Action Plan on the development of the early intervention system of services. This aims for 70% national coverage by establishing 24 new ECI centres and extending the network of community level ECD offices by 2027.
The expansion and strengthening of ECI services in Moldova is part of UNICEF Moldova’s ‘Creation and Development of the Early Intervention services for children with disabilities’ project.
This is Phase 2 of the project “Child Protection and Access to WASH, Health, and Social Services for Ukrainian Refugees and Host Communities in the Republic of Moldova” implemented by UNICEF Moldova in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Moldova, the Government of Germany, through the German Development Bank KfW, to strengthen and scale up key services for children and families nationwide.
Find out more about the lifechanging work of Lumos Moldova.
