On December 20, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Family-type children's homes will open in January in Shumilino and Chashniki, the education department of the Vitebsk regional executive committee informed a BELTA correspondent. Currently, the work on these facilities, designed to accommodate up to 10 children, is in the final stage: interior finishing is underway, furniture, household appliances, domestic utensils, and other necessary items for equipping the homes are being purchased. In parallel, future foster parents are being selected on a competitive basis. In each of the districts, 3-4 families are applying for this right, and almost every one of them already has their own children and foster children. Education department employees are familiarizing themselves with the parents' pedagogical experience and determining their readiness to expand their families. The names of the happy new residents are planned to be determined before the New Year. In total, since 2006, under the state program "Children of Belarus," 15 homes have been built in the Vitebsk region for families raising orphans in the Vitebsk, Verkhnedvinsk, Miory, Glubokskoye, Dokshitsy, Orsha, and Lepel districts, as well as in Orsha and Gorodok. 112 children have found their families in these homes. Targeted and systematic work is being carried out in the region to transfer orphans and children left without parental care to family-based care. The creation of family-type children's homes is one of the priority areas in this activity, the education department noted. Over 200,000 children under 18 years of age live in the Vitebsk region. About 4.5 thousand children are orphans and left without parental care, more than half of them are raised in substitute families. Over 80 children have been adopted since the beginning of the year. -0-

BELTA