The UNICEF Moldova Office today began distributing humanitarian assistance among the pupils of local boarding schools and orphanages. This arrangement is under way in the framework of the UNICEF's "Emergency Assistance for Institutionalized Children" project.

The project cost is some EUR 300 thousand. At its first stage, the help will be rendered to 3 thousand children in 19 such institutions. The project is financially backed by the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO).

The assistance comes in the form of clothes, foodstuffs, medicines, detergents supplied to children's establishments in southern Moldovan districts.

According to UNICEF data, the country's Budget allocations can barely cover 30 percent of what the children need to be provided with minimum necessary amounts of food, clothes, medical assistance, heating, etc. For instance, the daily food allocation for one child is only 4.65 lei ($0.38) -- a sum which cannot provide for children's normal physical and intellectual development.