PHOTO Building of multifunctional centre from Gagauz autonomy's settlement renovated with support of EU, UNDP

Chisinau, 6 December /MOLDPRES/ - The people from the vulnerable groups, including elderly persons, people with disabilities and refugees from Ukraine, who stay in the Copceac settlement of the Autonomous Territorial Unit (UTA) of Gagauzia, will have access to quality social services. This is due to the initiative financed by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mayor for Economic Growth (M4EG), which backed the renovation, thermal insulation of the walls and the setting of a biomass boiler in a block of the multifunctional centre of social services.      

This centre was one of the five projects supported through the European Union’s Crisis Response Programme for the members of M4EG, worth 38,000 euros in all, in order to back the settlements which host refugees from Ukraine. Copceac benefited from a grant worth about 100,000 euros. Thus, the social canteen with a capacity of about 100 people, the social laundry and the room where the donated assets are collected and distributed, were renovated. The centre is to be endowed with the needed technology and furniture, after which it will open its doors to beneficiaries, including for the carrying out of different activities for the residents.    

During a 5 December visit to the multifunctional centre of social services, Ambassador of the European Union to Moldova Jānis Mažeiks said: ‘’I strongly believe that an inclusive society naturally favours a deeper cohesion. With EU’s support, hundreds of social services have been launched all over Moldova. I am delighted that we now implement the second project of assistance in this sector in the Copceac village, UTA Gagauzia. These settlements, such as Copceac, along with many others from Moldova, have possibility to prosper quicker and more sustainably, when the social inclusion and cohesion serve as basis for the community’s development.’’    

For her part, the UNDP deputy resident representative in Moldova Seher Ariner, noted that the centre represented a perspective of transformation for the Copceac village and not only. ‘’This project shows the collective commitment to support the people from the vulnerable groups, including the refugees from Ukraine. New jobs will be created at the centre for the providing of social services. Through the integration of the essential services under the same umbrella, we meet not only the immediate needs of the people, but also lay the foundations of a sustainable local development and of an improvement of the crisis situations,’’ Seher Ariner also said.        

Besides the infrastructure’s modernization, the local authorities from Copceac benefited from trainings for the consolidation of the capacities in the social services field and developing the abilities of efficient and sustainable economic planning.  

On 5 December, the EU ambassador to Moldova and the UNDP deputy resident representative in Moldova also visited another social centre from Copceac, which hosts elderly people who remained without care. In 2019, with the efforts of the European Union, UNDP and other local public authorities, the Centre was renovated and the rooms for beneficiaries, hall for rest and the canteen were endowed with the things necessary.      

Besides Copceac, another four settlements received grants through the EU’s Crisis Response Programme for the M4EG members: Volintiri, Carpineni, Drochia and Cimislia.

The M4EG initiative, the second phase (2021-2024), has the goal of the inclusive economic growth and the creation of jobs through backing the local authorities from the Eastern Partnership countries.