The forum was attended by more than 200 senior officials, prevention specialists and child welfare experts from the North Caucasus Federal District. The meeting was supported by Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Yury Chaika, First Deputy Chairman of the Government of Stavropol Territory Andrei Khlopyanov, and the Foundation for Supporting Children in Difficult Situations.
In her speech, Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova pointed out that introducing the family-saving approach in each region and reducing the number of children living in group houses by at least 25 percent was an important goal set by the President for all constituent entities of the Federation.
The Children’s Commissioner spoke about the All-Russian inspection of the system for preventing social orphanhood: the inspection experts visited 74 regions, reviewed over 6,500 children’s personal files, and started working on more than 3,000 cases.
According to Maria Lvova-Belova, the inspection team visited all seven subjects in the North Caucasus Federal District, analysed 56 institutions, 26 guardianship and custody agencies, and 39 juvenile affairs commissions. Currently, there are 1,788 children at institutions in the North Caucasus, of whom 760 are orphans and the rest are temporarily placed children. During the work of the inspectorate, the number of children in the district’s institutions has decreased by 11.4 percent. This is higher than the national average.
According to Maria Lvova-Belova, it is important to support the opening of crisis family centres and day care centres for children with disabilities. For this purpose, the Commissioner’s Office is holding the “Centres of New Opportunities” contest for the second time. It has received 352 applications from 77 regions, including ten from the North Caucasus Federal District. New regions are also participating: an application for opening a day care centre came from LPR, and the Zaporozhye Region and the DPR have submitted one application for opening crisis centres each.
The Children’s Commissioner noted that the winners will be announced on or before June 1. The total grant fund of the competition amounts to 100 million rubles.
The issues discussed during the forum included interdepartmental interaction of specialists, effective practices of assistance to families with children without separation, and restoration of parental rights, as well as rehabilitation of people with addictions.
In addition, during her working visit to the Stavropol Territory, Maria Lvova-Belova held a working meeting with Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District Yury Chaika. The participants discussed the results of the All-Russian inspection of the child abandonment prevention system in the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District.