During the working meeting, Maria Lvova-Belova and Head of the Astrakhan Region Igor Babushkin discussed the initiatives of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the region as part in the Commissioner’s strategic programmes Teenagers of Russia and Support Through Life. For example, a centre for teenagers has been created in the region, and a day care centre for children with disabilities will soon open. The Office of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights will provide methodological assistance to the region in training specialists who will further train local doctors on how to notify parents of their child’s disability diagnosis. Maria Lvova-Belova also thanked the Governor for the warm welcome of children from the Lugansk People’s Republic.
Next, the Children’s Commissioner visited the Kapelka specialised children’s home and talked with the children at the Kontakt teenage centre.
At the meeting with representatives of relevant ministries and departments, the Commissioner praised the work of children’s social institutions in the region aimed at using all opportunities to return children to their birth families, and proposed reorganising the local orphanage, preserving its infrastructure, and repurposing it as an institution specialised in helping families.
Maria Lvova-Belova, together with Igor Babushkin, also took part in the opening ceremony of the Cup of Kindness Russian Children’s Fishing Festival, which was attended by 80 teenagers from 12 Russian regions. The festival was organised by the Dialogues about Fishing television channel and the Russian Oceanographic Community with the support of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights and the Government of the Astrakhan Region.