Tiraspol, 8 May. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. The president submitted two draft laws aimed at supporting children to the Supreme Council.
One of them, including amendments to Pridnestrovie's law «On state support for large families», provides for free places in recreation camps for children from large families with both working and unemployed parents.
According to the bill's explanatory note, taking into account that there are over 3,800 large families with almost 13,000 children, they will require 5,000−6,000 places a year.
The second draft law includes amendments to the law «On additional social security guarantees for orphan children and children deprived of parental care» and aims to support this category of children. Its main idea is to introduce a professional foster family institution, i.e. the state will pay foster parents, according to these amendments, the salary of a boarding school or orphan house teacher.
According to Social Security and Labour Minister Yelena Kulichenko, this initiative is not novel — the institution of foster family has been long and successfully adopted in many countries of the world, including Russia and Belarus. Our country began to construct the corresponding organisational and legal framework several years ago. It is stipulated both in the Code of Marriage and Family and in regulations on foster families elaborated by the Ministry of Education. Everything rested on financial matters, in other words on lack of state funds. However, according to experts, the state spends anyway considerable sums of money on orphan houses and boarding schools, then why not allocate these funds for bringing up children in foster families. Moreover, the number of children deprived of parental care does not diminish.
A monitoring mechanism of foster families is being worked out to prevent this institution from turning into a business when children are taken for profit rather than upbringing.
«Custody bodies will keep foster families under regular patronage based on the contract that will be signed between custody bodies and a potential foster family. In case unfavourable living conditions emerge in the family, the contract will be annulled," said Yelena Kulichenko.
Many public organisations dealing with children and disadvantaged families argue for the practical implementation of the institute of foster families. According to them, it will help children adapt to a life in society, which neither orphan house nor boarding school can ensure.
«The practice shows that children who has been brought up in foster families are as adapted to life as ordinary children from ordinary families, and boarding school leavers are often unprepared for independent life. They experience difficulties in making decisions, planning time, holding money; they do not know how to cook, buy food and so on," says the head of the charitable foundation Childhood to Children, Natalya Raiter.
«Besides, every child wants to be hugged and attended. The advantage of foster families is that parents pass special training; they are prepared; they know what to do in different circumstances," added the director of the republican charitable foundation Gift Good, Svetlana Privalova.
The institution of foster families is supposed to be co-developed with the already existing forms of child placement: boarding schools, patronage, adoption, adoptive families.
According to presidential adviser for social issues Oxana Bulanova, this will also help to employ would-be foster parents. Besides monthly salaries, foster parents are supposed to continue their employment record, which will be taken into account upon their retirement.
But the main thing is it will help many uncared children find families.
«We have met support when discussing this problem with public organisations dealing with such issues. Many families want and can take children, especially those living in the countryside, but very often their wishes do not meet their financial abilities," said Oxana Bulanova.
The amendments submitted to the Supreme Council by President Yevgeny Shevchuk are emergency laws and must be considered until 20 September to come in force in 2017.
