The financial support offered by the European Union to NGOs in Moldova helped these to easier go through the pandemic crisis since the start of March. Many of them managed to ensure the provision of services for the people in a normal regime or online and to supplies the employees with protective equipment. The subject of the EU’s assistance to NGOs during the pandemic was discussed at the EU Talks: EU’s Response to COVID-19 Crisis, IPN reports.
According to EU Ambassador to Moldova Peter Michalko, the EU supports and will continue to support the NGOs and local development. The civil society’s capacity should be increased in such expert areas as public finances, aspects of the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement, police reform and others. The EU aims to act in the long run and wants the difficult financing process to contribute to improving the administrative, financial management capacities of NGOs, including the capacity to manage small grants.
To support civil society, the EU Delegation has launched a number of mechanisms, including the instrument for democracy and human rights, to the value of €1.7 million, and the facility for civil society and local authorities, to the value of €3 million. Civil society in the Republic of Moldova can benefit from financing that is provided directly by the European Commission to the Eastern Partnership countries. Calls for proposals intended for local organizations will be soon launched. To counteract the effects of the pandemic in the EaP countries at social and economic levels, the European Commission has launched a call for proposals that is designed to support local civil society, which could benefit from €2.5 million.
Natalia Postolaki, executive director of Casmed Bălți, which provides social and medical home care services, said that when the pandemic started, she thought that they should better suspend work and the employees should stay at home so that they do not become infected while providing services at the homes of beneficiaries. But the organization later decided to maintain access to services, to take steps to protect the personnel and beneficiaries from infection, to attract new financial resources and to permanently monitor the situation on the spot. The donors’ essential support helped them to maintain their activity and to protect the personnel from infection. At the same time, the mobile team had to switch to work online, through Internet applications and the telephone.
Ina Vutkaryov, of the Positive Initiative Association, said that they worked rather efficiently during the pandemic. Over 1,000 HIV-positive people could continue their treatment, with more than 100 of them being migrants. Vital services were provided for drug users and the rehabilitation program in the penitentiary therapeutic community continued. “We made effort to shift the psychological assistance activities to the online environment. The employees were divided into teams so that they do not interact. We received a significant grant through East Europe Foundation for implementing the social business, which is extremely important even during the pandemic,” she stated.
According to Cristina Bobîrcă, of the Association of Independent Press, the project “Empowerment of Citizens in the Republic of Moldova” is intended particularly for people from communities so that they become more active and benefit from high-quality public resources. The project is financed by the Delegation of the European Union and is implemented by GIZ Moldova in partnership with regional SCOs. A complex local grants program centering on the media and communication is implemented as part of the project. There were selected a series of media NGOs and their local partners that are media outlets from regions that will produce features, programs about the way in which the authorities, businesses and education institutions coped with the pandemic, etc. The second project request will be soon launched and the overcoming of the pandemic situation will be one of its components.
Marina Albu, who heads the national network LEADER, stated that the project has been implemented in Moldova with EU support since 2016. In 2017-2019, the local initiative groups supported the implementation of about 400 projects, while in 2020 they plan to co-finance about 400 micro-projects.
