Building Resilience in Vulnerable Communities
Five Year Impact Report
The Five Year Building Resilience in Vulnerable Communities (BRVC) programme began in July 2021, significantly investing in a holistic approach to transforming the prospects of children and young people in Moldova, with a view to applying lessons learned to other countries nearby.
Little did we know that the resilience of our in-country partners, Beginning of Life (BoL), and their ability to adapt to the circumstances that followed would be so thoroughly put to the test.
Below you will find a summary of the BRVC programme. You can also read more detail in the drop-down sections headed “In detail”.
Note: “House of Opportunity” is the operating name of FSCI (UK) (Foundation for Social Change & Inclusion), a Registered Charity in England & Wales (1170914). FSCI (UK) has a sister organisation, FSCI Bulgaria, and together these two organisations, or simply “FSCI”, coordinate the FSCI Network, a group of like-minded organisations that share common values and mission in Southeast Europe.
Our view in 2020
Moldova 2020: one of Europe’s poorest nations with a United Nations Human Development Index ranking of 107. Economic weakness combined with labour migration, political shocks and community tensions is placing intense pressure on families and children. As family structures weaken and damaged parenting models are passed from one generation to the next, children and young people are increasingly exposed to neglect, school drop-out, loneliness, premature adult responsibilities and exploitation, including trafficking, modern slavery, commercial sexual exploitation and online abuse. Those from deprived or incomplete families, migrant households, foster care or orphanage backgrounds are especially vulnerable, often lacking support networks, emotional resilience and safe economic opportunities to mitigate against the external risks of trafficking and modern slavery.
Effective prevention must go beyond awareness-raising to build resilience, providing long-term, holistic restoration, stronger families, safer communities and credible life opportunities.
What was planned
Project activities fell broadly under three categories, although there was a lot of crossover:
- Vulnerable age groups
Our major target group was teens, and our intention was to gain access to schools and reintroduce Beginning of Life’s previously, and successfully, trialled “Way to Success” programme (WtS). WtS comprised a series of lessons with associated materials aimed at young teens, alongside training for teachers . Topics would include citizenship, personal development, personal finances and good decision making and critical thinking along with education around the risks of trafficking and exploitation of teens. BoL had run WtS before but funding for the project had ceased unexpectedly just as it was being picked up by schools in Chisinau. It was hoped that this programme could be reactivated without too much difficulty. With a little updating the materials were ready, what was needed was permission and endorsement from the Dept of Education. This had been achieved before, so it was reasonable to expect it could be achieved again. It was hoped that WtS could be replicated in Bulgaria too.
- Vulnerable communities
The target group here was children with absentee parents (either one or both working abroad). BoL had been running Early Years programmes from its Chisinau base for years prior to the start of BRVC. BRVC related activities would include the production of manuals and curricula based on BoL’s decades of experience working with this group, and creation of two new centres outside of the capital. - Vulnerable individuals
Our goal was to create three Houses of Opportunity in order to provide places for at-risk state care leavers and other vulnerable young people in order to prevent trafficking and exploitation and help them make successful transitions to adulthood.
In detail: Original Context, Moldova 2020
Southeast Europe remains significantly poorer than much of the continent, with Moldova among the region’s poorest countries. Moldova’s GDP per capita is far below that of Western Europe and its UN Human Development Index ranking (107th) illustrates the scale of the gap. This economic weakness limits employment prospects, particularly for people with fewer skills, and restricts the state’s capacity to respond to poverty and its social consequences.
Across Moldova and neighbouring Eastern and South-Eastern European countries, families are under acute pressure from labour migration, economic and political shocks, and community-level tensions. These forces weaken households and contribute to the transmission of damaged parenting models from one generation to the next. Children are then more exposed to neglect, school drop-out, loneliness, premature adult responsibilities and exploitation. In Moldova, the emigration of better-educated adults has widened the skills gap and left many children in insecure caregiving situations. Children in migrant households receiving remittances can remain highly vulnerable, while often being missed by services focused only on visible poverty.
Against this backdrop, organised criminal networks exploit vulnerability through trafficking, modern slavery, commercial sexual exploitation and online recruitment or abuse. Graduates of foster care or orphanages, “left behind” children and young people from fractured families are particularly at risk because they may have limited support networks, low emotional resilience and difficulty assessing danger. Many pursue education or work abroad as a route to a better future, but can become trapped in debt, unsafe employment or exploitative relationships.
Modern slavery causes exceptionally high harm, yet effective prevention and recovery are complex. Responses must be sustained, multi-country and multi-faceted, addressing both immediate danger and the deeper drivers of vulnerability: poverty, discrimination, gender inequality, violence, trauma, poor access to education, conflict and disasters. EU strategy emphasises the need for greater national investment and sustained support for community NGOs, but poorer countries often have the fewest resources while facing the most acute needs.
International Organisation for Migration assessments show that traffickers in Eastern and South-eastern Europe often target young women and girls from deprived or incomplete families. Prior trauma, gender-based violence and lack of viable economic alternatives can increase susceptibility and heighten the risk of re-trafficking. This context demonstrates why prevention must go beyond awareness-raising alone: it requires long-term, holistic restoration, stronger families, safer communities and credible life opportunities.
In detail: BRVC Proposal
Our answer to the issues facing Moldova and other Balkan countries, revolves around increasing individual and community resilience and increasing access to alternative life options. This changes the way individuals discount risk and alters the risk calculation made by vulnerable families and marginalised communities where modern slavery and exploitation tend to have their roots.
The main goal of this initiative is to offer individuals, families and communities an alternative model of resilient thinking and acting, in response to the effects of poverty, exploitation and trafficking which will result in the avoidance of harm and significantly better life experiences, both immediate and in terms of future prospects.
Our objectives are:
- To address in a holistic way and on a deep level, generational poverty, violence and exploitation, in order to prevent threats of human trafficking and emigration at any cost
- To build resilience and inclusion among the most deprived individuals and families within the community by involving them in the holistic educational process
- To expand horizons using professional educational and community development interventions, employment guidance and supporting entrepreneurial initiatives to widen access to self-sustaining opportunities
- To establish a network of sustainable partnerships among churches, NGOs, civil and volunteering groups along with local state representatives across Moldova and countries of the Balkans, enabling collaboration, sharing of good practices and supporting the ability of those involved to achieve strategic impact
The essence of the problem is the breakdown of family as an effective social unit. The problem has reached crisis level because of the prevalence of such breakdown. Our response is a holistic, targeted programme with multiple components addressing issues specific to key life transitions, developed and delivered by and through place-based centres or hubs. We will build up a common programme from Beginning of Life and the FSCI Network’s existing projects. This will allow us to create a scalable model that rests on a solid foundation of past learning, experience and practice with working solutions.
Scalability is vital so that we can respond effectively to opportunity over the five year period and bring on other organisations as partners in delivery. It is a multi-national endeavour; the multi-national aspect is critical to achieving the mainstreaming that is necessary long term and brings the best chance of associated game-changing impact.
We will intervene at multiple, complementary levels to achieve sustainable impact and break cycles of poverty and exploitation:
- Level 1 (individuals and families): We prioritise vulnerable teenagers/young adults and vulnerable single mothers (key to reaching the most at-risk children). Through Early Years Centres, we help prevent child abandonment and strengthen parenting by involving parents directly in their child’s early learning and development. Alongside this, tailored psychological support addresses trauma and abuse, reducing harmful behaviours and improving prospects for healthier family life.
- Level 2 (community resilience): Our centres also catalyse community development—challenging entrenched “ghetto” fatalism, building local assets, and enabling communities to co-identify problems and co-create solutions through training and networking, strengthening mutual protection and support.
- Level 3 (resilience at scale): We aim to expand “Way to Success,” a codified anti-trafficking awareness programme delivered through Moldovan secondary schools with Ministry support, training teachers to embed the course in the curriculum and reaching thousands of teenagers, with plans to revive and replicate it across other countries where the FSCI Network operates.
Holistic Support
Our approach is holistic. Resilience is built across the whole life context of individuals, families and communities, so the projects address multiple spheres:
- Material: practical basics for single mothers and vulnerable youth (e.g., food parcels, winter shoes, hygiene kits, safe accommodation and meals).
- Emotional: trauma-informed support often missing from standard welfare (e.g., art therapy and counselling; trauma-informed care in the House of Opportunity).
- Intellectual: closing education gaps and building self-knowledge, practical skills, critical thinking, and values-based decision-making.
- Social: reducing isolation and marginalisation that increase susceptibility to harmful relationships and risky choices.
- Spiritual: Alongside these four spheres, to thrive, all human beings also need strong foundations of dignity and identity. This requires attention to spirituality, introducing core values and principles that go beyond the visible and achieve change in the depths of a person’s mind and soul.
In detail: Project Overview
1st year
A process of building up a common programme based on the existing projects, which allow us to create a scalable model.
2 – 3 years
Customizing and shaping the model in different communities through establishing several centres with their own small teams and leaders. Process of extension and evaluation.
4 – 5 years
Model multiplication and promotion in Moldova, Eastern and SE Europe. Disseminating programme and training NGOs and churches. Co-operation with state institutions.
Because scale, impact, replication and sustainability are important goals, the project plan and associated budget pay specific attention and allocate specific resources to:
- Programme and manual development;
- Training;
- Quality assurance and data;
- Marketing and communications;
- Fundraising;
- Programme evaluation;
- Leadership development;
- Learning and dissemination;
The anticipated cost of all programme activities across five years is a maximum of €1.5 million.
Sustainability and impact
Our aim through our proposal is to provoke substantive societal change at a scale sufficient to act as a counterweight to the forces outlined earlier, reversing these destructive trends.
Sustainability and impact are framed in three ways:
- For current beneficiaries: ensure gains last beyond the five-year project through effective interventions and ongoing support networks for advice and assistance.
- For future at-risk people: ensure appropriate future provision is available—adapting as the context changes—through evaluation and learning, equipping stakeholders, and continuously improving the model to stay accessible and affordable.
- For future funding: secure continued investment beyond five years by demonstrating value for money and effectiveness to public authorities and philanthropies.
An additional enabler is good design: interventions should be easy to deliver, with modular components that still provide benefit even when implemented separately, keeping barriers to entry low.
Challenges
BRVC began in July 2021. By this time the financial fall-out from Covid was beginning to take a toll on Moldova’s economy, and citizens were facing ever-higher costs. Inflation spiked at 40 percent for fuel in autumn 2021, and the cost of basics climbed at a significantly higher rate than in Western Europe.
We knew that higher prices would be a problem when it came to deliver against 2 & 3 above (What was planned), and the risk of working age people moving for better employment opportunities, in an already mobile workforce, increased. However, we were hopeful that solutions could be found to deliver substantially against what was planned. Options included reducing the number of Early Years Centres and Houses of Opportunity.
Just as SE Europe was trying to adjust to these higher prices, Russia invaded Ukraine. Prices were again hit. It was now clear that we would have to rethink carefully what could be achieved for the money allocated.
Arguably however, the greater challenge was a human resources issue. With its network of churches and connected NGOs, BoL was well placed to mobilise people to respond to the wave of Ukrainian refugees that flowed into Moldova. As many as 300,000 came through in the first few months of the invasion. Many moved on after a short stay, but as many as 100,000 stayed longer. Many are still in Moldova today, waiting for the war to end. BoL’s personnel worked around the clock during the first few weeks of what was a national humanitarian effort.
BoL were tasked with coordinating the Protestant church’s response in Moldova, and liaising with the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The strain on BoL’s people and time was substantial. One of BoL’s team told us about her experience during that period.
It quickly became clear that our original plans would need to change significantly as our Moldovan partners responded to the urgent challenge of helping a vulnerable new refugee community build resilience amid major geopolitical events beyond their control.
Moldova has long been a nation divided. Over 60 percent of its people speak primarily Romanian. A third are Russian speakers. The nation’s politics reflect this. Pulled between the EU and NATO, and Russia, Moldova’s politicians were having to navigate their way between opposing blocs. Domestic politics were now dominated by the war next door, with little bandwidth for thinking about the future outside of surviving whatever may come next. Fear that they might be invaded next, worries about how to meet the cost of basics, and growing suspicions about where the allegiances of the other half of the country may lie were the hot topics of public discourse, and the politicians were driven by the same competing agendas.
Initial meetings at the Dept of Education in Moldova in 2022 were positive, with the Minister of Education agreeing that our proposal for the Way to Success programme was good, and that permission and endorsement would follow. Neither came. Repeated requests to the Dept of Education to produce the promised letters were either unanswered, or the reply was obfuscatory. The Minister was not in position long, and neither were his subsequent replacements. Our approach to delivering WtS would have to change.
Lastly, despite searching, we were unable to identify and appoint an external organisation to monitor and evaluate the programme; no other charity or NGO were considered able or suitable. This means that monitoring was carried out internally by Beginning of Life, and whilst we are confident that the results published below are accurate, we cannot state that they are from an independent source.
In detail: Current Context, Moldova 2026
Moldova is one of the most politically unstable and unprotected countries in Europe, with the Russian war in neighbouring Ukraine bringing fear, division and vulnerability, as well as an economic burden to Europe’s second poorest nation: 1/3 of Moldovans live below the poverty line. Ukrainian refugees make up 5% of Moldova’s current total population, many of them over 60 and extremely vulnerable. This is an additional stress in a country where high unemployment, limited prospects for young people and political uncertainty have led many citizens to seek work abroad.
The country is split between pro-EU and pro-Russian parties, bringing hate speech and familial conflicts to the fore. The economy has been adversely affected by the political situation: production and exports are down, imports are growing and inflation has risen by 40% in the last two years alone.
Because of the political and economic situation, Moldovan society faces serious challenges:
• The outflow of the working-age population has increased in the last four years
• The birth rate has fallen, with schools closing and universities at 50% capacity
• Shortage of professionals in all spheres, including charitable organisations and churches
• Failure of trust among people towards social institutions, including churches
The family as a social institution remains under immense pressure. Many thousands of children grow up with absentee parents. The cohesion that communities need has broken down, with the link between one generation and the next missing. The prevalence of damaged parenting models is increasing. Literacy amongst poorer people is declining. This is leaving children and young people with very little in the way of a future to look forward to, vulnerable to poverty and exploitation. Human trafficking, modern slavery and commercial sexual exploitation are on the rise. To a large extent, our work in Albania shares a distressingly similar context, emphasising the importance of our network approach.
5 Year Summary
What was delivered
Discussions about how BRVC would be adapted in the new reality of war and instability were ongoing through 2022, and even in 2023 we were still making substantial changes.
We are incredibly proud of the programme we have been able to deliver, in partnership with BoL, despite very challenging circumstances. When we began this project in 2021, our aim was clear: to strengthen the quality of life and resilience of vulnerable individuals, families and communities. Five years on, we can say with confidence that our overarching objective has been met: the combined efforts of our teams, partners and supporters have brought about substantial, measurable change for vulnerable individuals, families and communities at local, national and international levels.
Donations to BRVC totalled €950,000. In addition, €240,000 was granted for Early Years work in Moldova, Albania and Bulgaria, inspired by the commitment of BRVC donors. A further €93,000 was donated for emergency refugee response and medium-term support for Moldova, Bulgaria and Croatia.
Here is what was delivered across the period July 2021 – June 2026.
Vulnerable Age Groups
Political recalcitrance and the strain on BoL’s resources due to the ongoing crisis meant that progress on delivering Way to Success was severely hampered, but a way forward was found. It was decided that:
- WtS would be delivered by BoL outside of school, through its existing youth programmes – Urban Teens.
- Schools that BoL had a good relationship with would be approached to see if WtS could be delivered even without government endorsement (schools do have latitude).
- Other youth organisations would be approached to see if they wanted WtS, and to receive training on delivering the programme themselves.
There have been some very positive outcomes.
Urban Teens
2,458 accessed our informal education at schools (incl 18 school class visits to Urban Centre)
625 young people attended regular interactive group sessions at our centre
130 professionals trained through seminars
In Ukraine, partners translated the curriculum at their own expense and continue to use and share it nationwide. The programme is also used in Central Asia and South Korea, showing its adaptability across cultures.
Vulnerable communities
Inflation meant that there would be huge rises in the cost of delivering the original plan for Early Years Centres. Even reducing the number of centres from three to two would be very difficult. Then there were questions about value for money. Through the first 18 months of BRVC, initial work on Beginning of Life’s early years curriculum confirmed that BoL’s long and substantial experience in this field was a rich source of useful, and adaptable content.
BoL has a wide network of contacts in organisations and churches throughout Europe and Central Asia. We knew there was demand for accessible and adaptable materials for Early Years work, particularly in the latter region. It was decided to develop contacts in Moldova, and abroad, and produce an entirley new suite of educational materials that would cover ages 3-16. A website would be developed where registered users could access the material. Where there was no or limited web access, materials would be made available via USB, or printed. AI assisted translation meant that producing materials in different languages was now a very different prospect to just a few year ago.
The existing Early Years Centre would continue to run, but it would now be hosting two distinct groups: Moldovan children and their parents or carers, and Ukrainian refugees.
Here’s what was delivered.
Urban Kids
Number of individual children and parents attending Urban Kids (Early Years) over the last 5 years:
293 children attended weekly holistic education classes
241 parents/carers attended weekly parent/carer sessions, in addition to joint parent & child classes
For some children with additional needs, this is the only regular education they receive, as many are excluded from accessing state education. Urban Kids’ accessible, inclusive sessions are a lifeline for many such families.
Progressio (Educational manuals 3-16 years, funded and developed by BRVC)
The Progressio educational materials, in multiple languages, are now being used in 15 countries and 91 centres across Eastern Europe & Central Asia, providing an holistic curriculum for up to 4,000 children.
387 registered users have accessed extended course material using the Progressio education portal from across the globe.
Website and app in Romanian and Russian language.
Qualitative survey from the academic year 2023-2024 of all children and parents attending Urban Kids’ holistic education programme under BRVC.
Hover over graphics for details.
In Albania, our partner organisation, A2B Albania, opened a new Early Years Centre in the Roma & Egyptian community of Rrogozhinë (Sept 2024). During the last school year, up to 25 children accessed both early years and after-school sessions, with eight children and their parents at Rrogozhinë attending every single session. This is a remarkable achievement among the Roma and Egyptian community in Rrogozhinë, which is truly one of the most challenging to engage and integrate into education and cooperative efforts. This exciting development was possible only because our work in Moldova under BRVC inspired a separate grant specifically for Early Years work in Moldova and Albania.
In detail: Progressio
Progressio: A Moldovan Curriculum with Global Impact
When BoL began developing Progressio in 2021, the vision was clear: to create a practical, holistic curriculum that would help children grow intellectually, emotionally, socially, physically and spiritually. Over the next five years, Progressio grew from a local concept tested in BoL’s own centre into a complete series of six textbooks, supported by an online platform, teacher training seminars, translations and a growing international network of users. It is now used by educators in more than 90 community centres, churches and programmes serving vulnerable children and refugees across 15 countries.
What began as a set of books has become a tool for equipping educators, strengthening communities and building resilience on a scale none of us initially imagined.
How Progressio Builds Resilience
The Progressio curriculum integrates the prevention of exploitation as a cross-cutting priority. It does this by developing critical thinking, personal awareness and healthy boundaries from an early age; foundations that help children grow in self-worth, self-awareness and resilience.
Unlike many early years’ resources, Progressio addresses issues linked to poverty, violence and exploitation in an age-appropriate way. It equips children with practical tools to thrive, helps them recognise unsafe situations and gives them language to talk about difficult family experiences that might otherwise remain hidden in shame.
- Lessons actively engage children in reflection and discussion, strengthening critical thinking and decision-making.
- Teaching on healthy boundaries begins early, helping children understand ownership, respect and personal rights.
- As children grow older, the curriculum introduces age-appropriate teaching on personal safety, protecting and respecting boundaries, recognising inappropriate behaviour and seeking help.
- Across all levels, the curriculum emphasises dignity, care for one’s body and personal responsibility for wellbeing.
Whole Community Transformation
Our aim is not only to break cycles of poverty for individuals and families, but to strengthen whole communities. For some partners, this holistic approach is unfamiliar and initial resistance is common. Many are used to siloed models of children’s work. Progressio asks them to think differently by addressing emotional, social and developmental needs alongside spiritual formation.
Change often begins with one leader, teacher or director who sees the vision and starts putting it into practice. As results become visible in children’s lives, others follow. With guidance, training and ongoing support from BoL, resistance gives way to stronger programmes, changed mindsets and lasting impact for both partners and beneficiaries.
- Poland: A church-based kindergarten director embraced the approach. Teachers were hesitant at first, but after training they recognised its value, saw tangible change in the children and began recommending the programme to others.
- Kyrgyzstan: It was noted that children became more compassionate towards peers with special needs, group dynamics improved and relationships with parents grew stronger.
- Gagauzia: One teacher shared “After our Progressio lessons, I often leave the classroom with tears in my eyes. This is when the children truly open up, sharing their thoughts and struggles. Every lesson is a learning experience for me as well.”
Overall, this shift towards holistic education is helping communities move beyond fragmented responses by building children’s resilience, strengthening family relationships and creating healthier environments that reduce long-term vulnerability.
Partnerships and Cross-Regional Collaboration
From the outset, cross-regional collaboration has been central to BoL’s vision for long-term, sustainable change in Moldova and beyond. Over the past five years, BoL has developed significant partnerships in Moldova, the Balkan region and wider international networks.
In Moldova, BoL has a long-term partnership with several day centres in Gagauzia, you can find out more about this here.
In the last year, BoL has delivered five training seminars for staff and volunteers within the Gagauzia network – 4 children’s centres, reaching 180 children.
These trainings have significantly increased the capacity of both staff and volunteers. This is especially important because many team members are under 20 years old: migration and workforce shortages make it difficult to find qualified professionals, so young people who grew up within the project are now actively serving their own communities.
Across Moldova, BoL has now delivered Progressio training to 33 partner organisations, with 10 using the curriculum regularly. Most recently, BoL established a partnership with a Moldovan youth organisation. Once 100 staff have been trained this summer, 27 centres across Moldova will use Progressio as their curriculum; an encouraging development welcomed by all involved.
Worldwide Connections
Progressio has impacted thousands of individuals across the world, with our BoL team travelling to several new countries to deliver training in the last year alone. Our interactive website has been key to the success of this expansive project. Before 2020, our website functioned primarily as a simple landing page, offering basic descriptions of our projects. Since then, it has undergone a significant transformation. We carried out a full rebranding and developed it into a comprehensive, user-friendly platform that now hosts video courses, books, and structured educational content. This transition allowed us to upload and systematise materials developed over many years, including youth courses, resources for teenagers, and the full Progressio curriculum.
A key feature of the platform is its accessibility. Materials can be downloaded lesson-by-lesson, making them usable even in areas with limited internet connectivity. At the same time, digital versions of textbooks provide an important alternative when printed materials are difficult to deliver or too costly to ship.
Over the past 4 months alone, the website has engaged 641 active users, with the largest groups coming from Kazakhstan (175 users), Moldova (148), Russia (72), Kyrgyzstan (37), and Germany (33), alongside users from Sweden, Poland, China, South Korea, and Uzbekistan. This reflects a growing international reach. In addition, 450 books and courses have been sold online (reporting period 2020-2025), demonstrating both demand for the materials and the platform’s role in supporting sustainability.
Vulnerable individuals
Despite circumstances, a House of Opportunity was opened in October 2022, in Comrat, in the region of Gagauzia, southern Moldova. Six young women benefitted from the programme.
Unfortunately, the House of Opportunity in Comrat closed in October 2024 after key staff relocated to Chisinau. However, some very vulnerable young women had been substantially helped towards a positive future, as well as some useful lessons learned about the House of Opportunity programme in a Moldovan context.
In 2021 when designing the BRVC programme, the group that are now the focus of the banner ‘vulnerable individuals’ – Ukrainian refugees – did not exist. However, in 2022 when thousands of refugees poured into Moldova, BoL’s strength in providing effective holistic support to vulnerable individuals was used to full effect. For Urban Psychological Art Studio (PAS), this meant their attention was split between the large number of vulnerable Ukrainian women and children now in BoL’s sphere of activity and vulnerable Moldovan single mothers; thousands of people in desperate need have received immediate support as a consequence, with hundreds receiving ongoing, professional, holistic support.
Here’s some numbers, but these don’t touch on the indirect beneficiaries of BoL’s involvement in the refugee crisis:
Through Urban PAS:
Around 4,500 Ukrainian refugees received one-time emergency support (food, medicine, clothing, and transport to EU countries).
Approximately 200 refugees received longer-term support, including regular food assistance, participation in support groups, and access to psychological consultations.
Through our School for Parents, we have worked with around 100 single Moldovan mothers over the past 5 years.
Qualitative survey of 80 Female Ukrainian refugees who came through the Beginning of Life’s BRVC programmes during 2023-25.
Hover over graphics for details.
Sharing our expertise
A small player, with a big voice
BoL is a well-respected organisation in Moldova. This story highlights how BoL have been a light in some of the darkest situations for children in Moldova. In recent years, state orphanages in Moldova have been rapidly phased out and closed. As a result:
- Some children have been reintegrated into their biological families
- Others have been placed in foster families
As a continuation of our engagement in this area, we have become part of the Moldova fără Orfani (Moldova Without Orphans) network.
Through this partnership:
- We have already participated in three conferences, including one hosted at our centre
- Professionals working within the foster care system have begun actively exchanging experience with us
- Foster families and practitioners are drawing on our knowledge and approaches, particularly in working with vulnerable children
FSCI Network
BoL have been a key partner in FSCI’s Development & Impact Programme, attending its annual conferences and contributing significantly to the sessions, particularly regarding holistic education and art therapy for vulnerable women. BoL’s sessions have been warmly received, inspiring like-minded partners to reflect on their approach to holistic education in their centres. Our partners in Albania, A2B, have learned from BoL’s experiences in early years education and are considering adapting Progressio for their extremely marginalised Roma communities. Bulgarian, Albanian and Moldovan Early Years Education staff and leaders have enjoyed the opportunity to share successes, support one another through challenges and consider how resilience can be built in the vulnerable communities they serve.
Our partner organisation in Serbia, Centar Zvezda, arranged an art therapy training session for their staff from the BoL team, following an inspirational art therapy session at the 2025 FSCI Network conference.
Conclusion
Conclusion
When we began this project in 2021, our aim was clear: to strengthen the quality of life and resilience of individuals, families and communities. We sought to achieve this through the development of advanced critical and creative thinking, alongside practical action in response to the challenges of poverty, exploitation, local crises and wider social risks.
Five years on, we can say with confidence that this objective has been met: the combined efforts of our teams, partners and supporters have brought substantial, measurable impact for vulnerable individuals, families and communities at local, national and international levels.
Transforming Lives Across All Ages
Through your support, our early years educational programme has helped lay strong foundations for nearly 300 children and their parents/caregivers during their formative years. For young people aged 6–18, our wider holistic education initiatives have provided stability, opportunity and renewed hope, reaching over 3,000 vulnerable young people across Moldova and beyond.
Our dedicated art studio has offered over 300 vulnerable Ukrainian and Moldovan women a safe space for healing, skill building and self-expression, with thousands more supported materially. Meanwhile, the House of Opportunity programme, although short-lived in Moldova, equipped individuals with the tools, support and resilience they needed to break cycles of vulnerability and move confidently toward independence and dignity.
Progressio: A Model with Global Impact
The Progressio programme—conceived, developed and published by BoL and rooted in academic research and practical experience, has enabled our holistic, resilience building approach to reach far beyond our immediate community. Its effectiveness is now recognised globally, positively impacting thousands of lives, with demand for the programme continuing to grow year on year.
Progressio as a sustainable model
At the outset, we said our interventions should be easy to deliver, with modular components that continue to provide value even when implemented separately. Progressio embodies this approach.
Impact at scale
The social return on investment in the Progressio curriculum is significant. It has become a sustainable model that can be replicated globally, reaching vulnerable children and families at scale while requiring relatively low core costs. Some continued investment is still needed to promote the programme, produce textbooks where required, and train new partners.
Equipping communities for long-term change
Those partners are trained in a long-term, highly effective model that is free at the point of use, enabling holistic impact on a scale that was unimaginable five years ago. Each full curriculum provides more than 270 hours of holistic education for vulnerable children and families aged 3–18.
Lasting resilience
Through Progressio, thousands of families will be deeply impacted and lovingly supported. The programme helps build resilience against the risks facing marginalised and impoverished families across the globe, thanks to the curriculum developed with your support.
Lasting Transformation built on Love
At the outset of the BRVC programme, we aimed to provoke substantive societal change at a scale sufficient to act as a counterweight to the negative forces at work in Moldovan and global society, reversing these destructive trends. The negative forces have certainly been heavier than expected and yet sustainable, transformative change has come and is coming, not only for individuals, but for communities and, at a slower pace, but still in the right direction of travel, the balance will tip as we continue to replicate our holistic model at scale.
Thousands of beneficiaries have been positively impacted by this programme, however long or short their time with us. All have received love – a critical foundation for growth. This love may have been received in the form of a food parcel for a Ukrainian refugee, parent classes with Urban Kids or a house parent’s affirmative words over a House of Opportunity resident.
Much of our work has focussed on long-term impact, by designing programmes that build resilience. As our stories and statistics demonstrate, hundreds of vulnerable individuals are now more resilient, carry more hope and can access a positive way forward, breaking the cycles of poverty and broken families at their root. Modern slavery has been prevented; there will be people on our programme who will now not be trafficked because of their time with us. This is life-changing, sustainable impact, the effects of which will last for generations to come.
What’s Next?
House of Opportunity (FSCI) has learnt a lot through the BRVC programme. Lives have been changed for good through our combined efforts, impacting deeply at individual and community levels. Together with BoL, we have developed a sustainable, agile vehicle for change through our Early Years work, resulting in the Progressio programme. Significant investment in core capacity has given space for creative, analytical and innovative thinking, backed by science, that has led to the development of a replicable model impacting thousands of lives across the globe, now at little cost to the core. House of Opportunity (FSCI) believes that the next step for BRVC must be built around investing in core capacity across our network.
Investing in core capacity will:
- improve staff retention by paying staff at a competitive rate, offering CPD, regular supervisions and supporting their wellbeing
- establish an adaptable, agile core, ready to respond to needs beyond the immediate crisis point – looking upstream to prevention – by creating space to think creatively, train others, replicate and multiply
- increase opportunities to seek grant and government funding and build internal donor relations as team will have capacity to do this;
- increase likelihood of winning grants as the charity will look more stable and sustainable long term.
House of Opportunity (FSCI) envisions itself as a catalyst across the Balkans and BoL across Central Asia, developing a platform for shared learning, corporate reflection and action, with holistic mission at its core. We have strong evidence of the success of this model and believe many more individual lives, communities and, with time, regions can be transformed for good with the right level of investment.
