Latvia

On 25th and 26th January project coordinators met to inaugurate new stage of the Childhood without Abuse project that will last from 2010 till 2013 and include organizations from Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine.

In November 2009 Center against Abuse "Dardedze" invited professionals for two trainings titled "Child abuse in institutions - recognizing, helping, stopping". 40 participants, mainly social workers, care workers and psychologists from child care institutions, were introduced to the basics of the phenomenon. A lot of time was dedicated to identifying possible cases of abuse in institutions represented by the participants and problem solving. Resilience approach as an effective approach in working with children in institutions was also introduced.

Studies parallel to the studies from 2005 were conducted this year in the frame of the Childhood without Abuse Project. The aim of the studies was to assess changes in the level of public's and professionals' awareness on the topic of child abuse that took place during the time of the project implementation. Studies were conducted in all seven countries participating in the project: Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, and Ukraine.

Year 2009 of the implementation of Childhood without Abuse Project in Poland, Latvia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldavia and Ukraine was devoted to the issue of abuse of children in different types of institutions. As a base for planning this year's activities and analyzing possible solutions to the problem, partner organizations prepared short documents on the situation of children in institution in their country.