MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) – According to preliminary calculations, central government agencies, state organizations reporting to the government, concerns, banks, and public associations on the list of participants of the New Year charity campaign Our Children have delivered material aid, equipment, gear, and gifts worth a total of about Br1 million to various institutions for children, the press service of the Belarusian Education Ministry told BelTA.
The nationwide charity campaign Our Children took place from 10 December 2018 through 11 January 2019. Representatives of 91 organizations visited 122 socially significant places: boarding schools, orphanages, family-type children's homes, hospitals for children, welfare shelters, correctional institutions, and other places. Over 15,000 children took part in the charity campaign at the national level.
The Belarusian Education Ministry press service said: “Instead of visits to boarding schools these days the Our Children campaign shifts focus onto participation in a family celebration in a well-furnished cottage or an apartment built with assistance of the state budget as a family-type children's home where five to ten orphans and children without parental care live. This year top government officials, heads of ministries, representatives of central government agencies and state-run organizations, banks, and public associations have visited children's homes, boarding schools, children in guardian families and adopted children, family-type children's homes, and children with disabilities to offer New Year and Christmas greetings. Solid patronage ties have been established with many institutions where orphans and children with disabilities are raised and educated. These ties stay strong not only during the charity campaign period.”
The main events of the charity campaign Our Children included a New Year celebration involving the head of state and over 2,300 kids, festivities for the best school and university students in the Palace of Independence, New Year celebrations involving the oblast governors and the Minsk mayor.
