The Mother's Week will be held in Belarus from October 10-16, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection informed a BELTA correspondent.
The Mother's Week will be held in Belarus from October 10-16, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection informed a BELTA correspondent.
According to specialists, Mother's Week is aimed at supporting the tradition of respectful attitude towards women, strengthening family values, and enhancing the prestige of a healthy, harmonious family and responsible parenthood. The Ministries of Culture, Information, Education, Health, Internal Affairs, and Defence, regional executive committees, and the Minsk City Executive Committee are participating in the events of this thematic week. The public association "Belarusian Women's Union" makes a significant contribution.
This year, the Mother's Week programme includes traditional ceremonial receptions at city, district, and regional executive committees, awarding of the Mother's Order, festive concerts, recreation evenings, as well as new format events (the exhibition-forum "Motherhood and Childhood", the campaign in healthcare organizations "Week without Abortions").
In work collectives and at places of service, women-mothers will be honoured, and the final of the republican campaign "Family! We Serve Together!" will take place. The Drama Theatre of the Belarusian Army will host congratulations for the activists of the Belarusian Public Organisation of Soldiers' Mothers, the Association of Family Members of Servicemen Who Died in Afghanistan "Memory and Duty", and the Fund for Social Protection of Widows and Children of Servicemen Who Died in Local Military Conflicts "Duty".
A charity ballet evening for large and low-income families will be held at the Belarusian State Choreographic College. A concert of scholarship holders of the Yuri Rozum International Charitable Foundation, dedicated to Mother's Day, will take place at the National Historical Museum. The Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Life will organise a thematic programme "Matcynа khata" (Mother's Hut). The Museum of the History of Theatre and Music Culture has prepared a photo exhibition "Izanka" (The Flip Side), dedicated to Mother's Week.
The grand opening of the new building of the State Institution "Minsk City Centre for Social Services for Family and Children" will be held in the capital. The photo exhibition "Dad and Child" from the social art project "Babystory.by" will be opened near the Minsk City Hall.
Following the established good tradition, rural mothers will be honoured on the World Rural Women's Day.
In these October days, we honour married couples – golden and silver jubilarians, as well as mothers with many children who gave birth in 2016. Women who gave birth on Mother's Day will be congratulated in maternity hospitals. A celebration will be held for mothers from large, foster, and guardian families, and mothers raising children with disabilities; charitable events will be organised for them. Free legal consultations are planned for mothers with many children.
The charitable event "Mercy" includes visits to single elderly women in nursing care hospitals, in day care departments of territorial social service centres for the population, and in residential care homes for the elderly and disabled. Visits to veteran homes and homes for the elderly are planned.
Substitute Parent Clubs will hold festive themed meetings with foster parents, foster carers, and guardians. Round tables and discussions with candidates for adoption and foster parenthood will take place.
Round tables and press conferences on reproductive health protection and healthy lifestyle formation are planned. Consultations for women, children, and students on healthy lifestyle formation, health preservation, and strengthening will be held in healthcare organisations.
Throughout the republic, in educational institutions, morning matinees and exhibitions of children's creativity will be held; in cultural institutions, themed literary and musical evenings, concerts, and book exhibitions will take place; in cinemas, themed film lectures, screenings of social videos, and themed documentary, feature, and animated films will be shown. Mass family events, sports festivals, and competitions will be held across the country.
The summing up and awarding of the winners of the republican creative competition among media outlets "A Strong Family – A Strong State" is planned. The results of the online drawing competition "Mother's Smile" and the Republican Student Essay Competition "Hymn to Mother" will be announced.
The Ministry noted that in 2016-2020, family policy is aimed at maintaining achieved birth rates, strengthening the institution of the family, and utilizing the established family support mechanisms (formation of family capital, provision of financial assistance to large families for the academic year, provision of a wide range of social services to families with children, etc.). This is envisaged by the subprogram "Family and Childhood" of the State Program "People's Health and Demographic Security of the Republic of Belarus" for the current five-year period.