Calfa, a small rural Moldovan village, has felt the drain as parents have had to leave their families behind so they can find work abroad and send money home. The numbers are startling – more than half of the kids at the village school have one parent working abroad, and many have both.
As the small village becomes even smaller, those who have stayed behind are coping, and finding ways to work with what they have. The village primary school is a great example. Calfa is not a wealthy community, but residents have pitched in, and the kids now have computers in their school, and parents provide a lot of direct support to the school itself, helping out with programming and special events.
With support from the Social Investment Fund supported by the World Bank, the village has been able to repair the leaky roof that was dripping on students, and to upgrade to a gas boiler so that the school consistently has heat without someone needing to shovel coal all day to keep a fire stoked. The main road of the town, previously decayed to the point that kids would come to school covered in mud, has been resurfaced, and drainage has been installed, so that the improvements aren't washed away.