We may not be able to change Andrei's past, but with your support, EveryChild can provide for his future.

As the Country Director of EveryChild Moldova, I often speak to children who have had the worst possible start in life. Children like Andrei, pictured right.

At just 14, Andrei was homeless and living on the streets of Cahul, a city of over 40,000 people. Andrei had made a wheelie bin in the city’s market his home - scavenging for what food he could find, and befriending a stray dog to keep himself warm at night. But when the dog died, the freezing temperatures became too cold for Andrei so he left the market and wandered the streets, looking for somewhere else to go.

The police found Andrei ill, emaciated and filthy. But luckily they knew somewhere he would be safe – an EveryChild supported small group home.

When Andrei first arrived he was scared of everyone and everything. He was even too scared to go to sleep, as each night he would suffer terrible nightmares. But over time, EveryChild-trained social workers helped Andrei to work through his issues. He is now coming to terms with his experiences and feels calmer and happier.

Andrei even attends the local school and has made the friends he so desperately wanted. In fact when I met him recently he was excited about going outside to play football – exactly the sort of thing a 14-year-old boy should be doing.

Andrei now receives vocational training. About his favourite class, metal work, he says ‘I like cutting the best. It’s necessary to be able to do this training so I can do something in my life’.

EveryChild’s primary focus has been, and always will be, getting children who are growing up alone back into their family, extended family or into suitable foster care.

But sadly despite our best efforts, sometimes that isn’t possible. Sadder still, we know that without proper support most children who grow up in care go on to find it impossible to cope on their own, making their futures uncertain at best.

Here in Moldova, statistics tragically show that 98 out of 100 unsupported children who leave long-term care will fall far short of reaching their full potential. Some will turn to drugs and alcohol in a futile attempt to block out the pain, desperately resorting to prostitution as their only means of income. Many will hand their own children over to state-run care, repeating the cycle for another innocent generation. For others their experiences have left them so damaged, that they see suicide as the only way out.

That is why EveryChild is working hard to develop care-leaver programmes to equip vulnerable children with the skills and knowledge they need to lead productive, independent lives.