MOLDOVA / REMITTANCES

Moldova is being hard hit by a decline in remittances caused by the global financial crisis. Despite recent economic reforms, Moldova remains the poorest in Europe and it's clear that declining remittances could have a large impact on families trying to cope with the economic downturn. WORLD BANK

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:27
• Production Date: 3 June 2009
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT; FINANCING; ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
• Geographic Subject: MOLDOVA
• MAMS Id: U090603a

Description

STORY: MOLDOVA / REMITTANCES
TRT: 2.27
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ROMANIAN / NATS

DATELINE: NOVEMBER 2008, CALFA, MOLDOVA

Shotlist

1. Various shots, child eating bread
2. Wide shot, children at school
3. Wide shot, children walking home
4. Wide shot, old lady walking
5. Med shot, village mayor coming out of gate
6. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Ludmila Ceaglic, Mayor of Calfa:
“There are advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are that children miss their parents’ love and care. The advantage is that parents send money and this is saving the population from starvation.”
7. Med shot, man driving tractor
8. Wide shot, adolescents walking
9. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Ludmila Ceaglic, Mayor of Calfa:
“If those working abroad came back, our living standards would drop below the poverty level.”
10. Pan left, village
11. Wide shot, train crossing
12. Wide shot, town
13. Close up, bank sign
14. Wide shot, bank
15. Various shots, people walking on streets
16. Med shot, woman at sewing machine
17. Med shot, women at sewing machines
18. SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Rodica Cornilova, Seamstress:
“I wouldn’t leave because I think they’re at the age when they need their mother a lot.”
19. Med shot, railways
20. Med shot, people in the streets
21. Med shot, lady and children walking away
22. Med shot, flag of Moldova
23. Close up, children eating soup

Storyline

Soup’s on at Calfa’s school. For some of the kids here, this is the most filling meal of the day.

The cupboard is often bare at home. Work is hard to find. A third of the students in this school have a parent working outside Moldova. Almost a fifth has both parents abroad. Grandparents with tiny pensions and limited energy are left to care for young children.

The village mayor says having so many parents abroad is a mixed blessing.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ludmila Ceaglic, Mayor of Calfa:
“There are advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantages are that children miss their parents’ love and care. The advantage is that parents send money and this is saving the population from starvation.”

Unemployment in Calfa is high, what jobs there are pay little, and government pensions are as low as 30 dollars a month. The money that flows back from those who left, most often for Russia or Italy, is a lifesaver.

SOUNDBITE (English) Ludmila Ceaglic, Mayor of Calfa:
“If those working abroad came back, our living standards would drop below the poverty level.”

Calfa village is not alone. Almost a quarter of Moldova’s working age population has left the country to find paying jobs. Relatives or couriers bring money back to Europe’s poorest country by train or minibus.

Moldovans abroad often work illegally and fear opening a bank account or distrust banks, so it’s hard to gauge exactly how much money is sent back. By some estimates, it tops a billion dollars a year.

Ten thousand working age people in this county of 60,000 have gone abroad to try their luck at finding work.

Rodica Cornilova has a job sewing ski pants. She is grateful for it, but wishes it paid more. Leaving Moldova has crossed her mind, but she is a single mother with no one to take care of her three children.

SOUNDBITE (Romanian) Rodica Cornilova, Seamstress:
“I wouldn’t leave because I think they’re at the age when they need their mother a lot.”

Official figures are that up to 350,000 Moldovans have left the country. Those who stayed behind need the money their relatives send. Most of it is spent on food, clothing, medicine and housing. And as the financial crisis affects countries around the world, it remains to be seen how much Moldova’s overseas workers are able to send home.