On Global Elections Day, CICDE announces the launching of the mobile campaign ‘Arci’s Journey to Elections’, which aims at informing and civic education of primary school children. The campaign will be conducted during February-March 2021 under the ‘Enhancing Democracy in Moldova through Inclusive and Transparent Elections’ Project, implemented by UNDP Moldova, with the financial support of the American people provided through USAID Moldova.

The fourth edition of the electoral comic book entitled ‘Arci – Elections Without Barriers’ comprises three stories easy to read and to understand about Braille alphabet and how it helps people with vision impairments to vote, about the direct barriers that a voter with mobility impairments faces at the polling station, and how people with hearing impairments get informed about the electoral process with the help of sign language. The publication is available in Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Gagauz and English languages.

This time, the hedgehog Archi seeks to reach to 15,000 children from grades I-IV from about 100 schools in 10 districts of the Republic of Moldova. CICDE volunteers will disseminate:

• Electoral comic books, fourth edition ‘Arci – Elections Without Barriers’
• Electoral comic books, third edition ‘Arci Against COVID-19’
• Board games from the series ‘Play with Arci’
• Leaflets for children and young people ‘Democracy can be learned’
• Arci mascots for school libraries
• Constitution of the Republic of Moldova

Also, in the following period, all the stories of the four editions of electoral cartoon books will be developed in Braille language. Also an audio/podcast version will be developed and will be available for children with visual impairments and for parents, educators and teachers at home, at the kindergarten or at school.

‘Continuing the good practice of using electoral cartoon books in kindergartens, schools and even families, were got to the fourth edition that we will disseminate to children so that they learn from early ages about their electoral rights. Thus, they get prepared early on for the responsibility to vote and to be part of a participative democracy. We hope children will like this edition’, says Doina Bordeianu, CICDE Director.

Eva Bounegru, UNDP Project Manager: ‘During the first mobile campaign, we managed to reach out to 14,700 children, following the anti-pandemic measures imposed in October 2020. Currently, we plan to reach other 15,000 children, with informative materials both for classes of personal development and moral and spiritual education and for interesting activities during the free time of children.’

At present, with the support of UNDP Moldova, CICDE launches the third edition of the contest of electoral vlogging. Children aged between 7 and 14 years may register for the contest. They have to record a video of maximum 3 minutes and present the information they learned after reading the fourth edition of the electoral cartoon book ‘Arci – Elections Without Barriers’. The deadline for the publication of vlogs is 16 April 2021.

Remember that all four editions of electoral cartoon books with Arci the hedgehog can be downloaded on www.cicde.md

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