On Tuesday, July 21, Moldova Social Investment Fund organized an event dedicated to the launch of the project "Enhancing access and the participation of children in early childhood education and childcare in Moldova", financed by the Government of Romania.

The project aims at reducing the gap between the enrollment rate of children of early childhood in kindergartens in urban areas and the rural areas by increasing children's access to early childhood education in rural areas.  The direct beneficiaries of the project’s result (improved educational and sanitary conditions in the respective localities) are preschool children, not enrolled (or partially enrolled) in early childhood education, teachers, educators and technical staff of the beneficiary institutions.

The event was attended by representatives of local authorities and Implementing Agencies from more than 35 Moldovan localities that have preschool institutions with stringent needs in domain of early childhood education.

In order to receive funding, municipalities must carry out a number of actions:
1. to submit Application for Grant to MSIF;
2. to develop and submit technical drawings or specifications;
3. to collect community contribution in the amount of 100% of the requested grant amount;

Subsequently, the approval of the subproject by the Executive Committee of MSIF will follow. "The main criterion of the project implementation is the rule “first come - first served”," the Deputy Director of the MSIF, Liuba Cuzneţov, announced at the event.

In order to ensure sustainability of the project, MSIF signs a Grant Agreement with each beneficiary community by which the community is obliged to the following:

1. To pay their own contribution (not less than 15% of the subproject);
2. To preserve the destination of the object within a period of 15 years not to be privatized or be used for purposes other than the education;
3. To register works carried out and goods purchased within the sub-project not later than 2 months from the date of their final acceptance;
4. To ensure the sustainability of the renovated object by allocating financial resources on annual basis from the local budget of the Primaria for its maintenance and operation.

Contact: Oxana Isac
Tel .: (+373 022) 27-40-70, e-mail: oisac@msif.md