”I now understand that it is POSSIBLE! Our children can be employed in the future, only they need to be properly guided. It is important that they would not be isolated!”
Keystone Moldova and “Close to You” Romania Foundation have organized three informative workshop on the role of parents in providing career guidance for people with disabilities. Workshops, organized on both banks of the Prut River, brought together 47 parents who have children with disabilities. Parents learned about the role they play in their children’s career planning and choice.
“Parents are not informed. They do not know their rights… They do not know about the opportunities that a child with disabilities has.” Parents learned and discussed legislation on career guidance and counseling for people with disabilities; human resources and institutions involved in the process of career guidance and counseling: “I didn’t know this information. I thought that nothing was done in the Republic of Moldova for people with disabilities.”
Following the activities, parents learned how they could promote career guidance and counseling for people with disabilities. They talked about assisted employment and some of them even got some ideas about possible jobs.
“I understood how I could guide my child to a more independent life. As parents, we need to help children discover their talents or abilities. From an early age, we need to help them to develop skills that they would need later, in order to be employed.” The parents mentioned that this activity gave them hope for a better future for their children, a future in which it is possible to be employed.
The parents appreciated that they met and could talk to each other, exchange experiences, learn new things. They understood that they could increase their child’s chances for social inclusion: “We, the parents, have so far worked on our own. As long as we try to solve some problems on our own, we will not be heard. If we gather more parents, we would become a force. And then, things will change—in legislation, in attitudes, and at the level of social inclusion.”
The activity took place within the Project “Cross-border partnership for inclusive career guidance” (2SOFT / 1.1 / 145), implemented by Keystone Moldova in partnership with “Close to You” Romania Foundation, financed by European Union through the Joint Operational Program Romania–Republic of Moldova 2014-2020, through the European Neighborhood Instrument (ENI).
For more information about the Project, please see: https://www.keystonemoldova.md/en/projects/cross-border-parternship-inclusive-career-guidance/