During her meeting with Governor of the Kirov Region Alexander Sokolov, Maria Lvova-Belova thanked him for the region’s attention to enhancing assistance to parents. Over the past 18 months of efforts to prevent social orphanhood in the region, the number of children with parents whose parental rights have been restricted or terminated has decreased by 38 percent.
The Commissioner visited an interregional comprehensive social services centre in the town of Slobodskoy. Over the past year, the centre has opened a parents’ room and equipped a space for joint activities by parents and children. It also has a day care department for children and young adults with disabilities, as well as offers social child-care assistance.
The Children’s Rights Commissioner noted that the co-living section of the Vmeste (Together) crisis centre for parents and children has opened in the region. The centre has received a 1.5-million-ruble grant for establishing that section as a winner of the Centres of New Opportunities competition. This service is in high demand, with five families taking advantage of it over the first three months since its establishment.
Maria Lvova-Belova held a personal reception and took under her control the cases of two women, who asked for assistance to return their children from social establishments.
The Commissioner also took part in a meeting with the Chief Addiction Specialist of the Kirov Region and the Volga Federal District Yelena Tominina and chief narcologists and children’s rights commissioners from 13 regions.
Maria Lvova-Belova inspected the operation of the Kirov Region Drug Treatment Clinic, met with mothers undergoing treatment and rehabilitation, and held a meeting on implementing the recommendations of the National Inspection of the System for the Prevention of Social Orphanhood.