“Hello, my name is Dorin. I’m seven years old and I am going to school.”
This is not, perhaps, an unusual greeting from a child of Dorin’s age – but it was not long ago that Dorin could not speak, sit on a chair or even hold a pen. However, he received help from specialists at an inclusive kindergarten, supported by Lumos, where tailored activities were developed for him. And now he is a little older, Dorin attends the Inclusive Education Unit created with Lumos's support within the high school right across the street from the kindergarten. As a result, he can continue to benefit from the same tailored approaches, training methods and specialised services.
This progress is thanks to help from Fondation Dora and their substantial support towards Lumos’s Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) project in Moldova.
Fondation Dora is a Swiss family Foundation working to support children and teenagers with disabilities. They are supporting Lumos’s three-year project, running from 2022 – 2025, to introduce ECI services for children with disabilities into local communities in Moldova.
By introducing local access to specialist services, such as physiotherapy, speech therapy and neurology, this project is aiding families to keep their children at home, rather than sending them to live in institutions.
Gérard Cognié, co-Founder and Secretary of Fondation Dora, said:
“We at Fondation Dora are convinced of the importance of the family for the healthy development of the child, and even more so if the child is at risk. In complicated family situations, we believe that we must do our best to avoid theseparation of a child from their family.Lumos’s Early Childhood Intervention programme in Moldova focuses exactly on this issue and emphasises the importance of preventing family separation. This is why Fondation Dora decided to support it. Our relationship with Lumos is still new, but we are impressed by the professionalism of the charity. The relationship is transparent, and we are well aware of the situation in Moldova.”
Domnica Ginu, Lumos’s Moldova Country Director, said:
“Lumos's approach in Moldova has been to create and develop models of services for children, including those with developmental delays and/or disabilities, that would prove their efficiency, deliver results and get approved for implementation at the national level.
She continues: "The system of Early intervention services created, developed and being piloted by Lumos in two districts provides the evidence and results that have laid the grounds for the approval of the National Action Plan for the development of the early intervention services for 2023 - 2027.
All these have been possible due to the support that our organisation has been getting from partners like Foundation Dora. There is still a lot to do to ensure lasting change for children with developmental delays and/or disabilities and their families. And we are thankful for everyone who supported, supports and is willing to continue supporting us in keeping children at risk and their families together.”