Moldovan Hospital Maternity Ward Gives Birth to Citizen Participation
For years the maternity ward in Telenesti has had no functioning patient bathing facilities, few working in-room sinks, and fluorescent lighting fixtures that hung from the ceiling like carrion birds. Today, new mothers can shower, bathe their newborns, and go home with healthy babies and lifelong hygiene habits, thanks to the efforts of Association Armonie and over 250 citizens, and with the help of USAID’s Citizen Participation Program.
Under threat of closure, but with insufficient funds to rectify the situation, Armonie Director Dr. Alexei Bivol, an OB/GYN specialist, and his wife Vera gave birth to a project to renovate the facilities at the Telenesti maternity ward. Fellow health care professionals, patients, citizens, business people and local government all got involved in the effort to fix-up a ward that serves 6,000 patients every year. After securing initial IREX/USAID funding of 250,000 Moldovan Lei, citizen activists bearing the slogan, “You are a citizen of this community too,” mobilized to collect cash donations from residents and businesses, to obtain technical authorizations from public institutions, and to create a center for project volunteers.
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Citizens banded together to ensure a healthy start in life for newborns
Photo Credit: Alexander Costin, USAID/Moldova |
Within six months 90 sinks, 11 toilets, three showers, and new corridor lighting were installed, and water supply and sewage system pipes were replaced. More than 250 former patients and their families shared substantial responsibility for demolition labor and overall project monitoring. Encountering reluctance from the local electric company, technically savvy volunteers installed new lighting fixtures and wiring themselves. A local vendor donated two sinks, two showers and personal labor. The hospital medical staff created an advocacy campaign to raise awareness on women’s reproductive health rights and provided seminars on hygiene.
“We worked hard to prove that community spirit is natural, and that we are able to organize ourselves and our community to solve local challenges,” explained Mrs. Bivol. The excitement has proven to be contagious. Two new citizen initiative groups and two NGOs have formed to spawn other initiatives in Telenesti, Peceste, and Rezina, and Armonie has doubled its membership. The raion government has even increased its contribution to support the renovation of other sections of the hospital to 60,000 Moldovan Lei. An anonymous citizen offering comments in the project scrapbook remarked, “We made it possible, and we should make sure it is lasting.”
Doctor Bivol, who first challenged his fellow citizens to be active in their community noted: “It seems like this will go on. Citizens, businessmen, and even the authorities have gotten involved and donations, assistance, support, and new ideas keep coming in. Our NGO is now included in the Hospital Council. I am no longer the assigned leader of a project; I have become a leader in the community.”
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