Two foster families are settling into new family-type homes in Lepel

March 16, Vitebsk / Olga Bogacheva - BELTA /. Two family-type homes for orphans have found new residents in Lepel, the education department of the Lepel District Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent. Currently, the adoptive family of Natalia and Vladimir Mikhailovs with five children is settling in one of them, and Lyudmila Shnitko, who is raising three daughters and four sons, including her biological son, is establishing her household in the neighboring one. Local authorities are assisting the parents in creating comfort and solving problems in their new location. The official opening and housewarming party for the families are planned to be celebrated in April. The spacious dwellings were built under the presidential program "Children of Belarus," subprogram "Orphaned Children." Br760 million from the regional and republican budgets were allocated for their construction. This year, similar facilities are planned to be built in Chashniksky and Shumilinsky districts. In addition, members of another large adoptive family from Gorodok will soon become happy new residents, as the construction of a family-type orphanage is nearing completion there, funded by Belinvestbank, the education department of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee noted. In total, since 2006, 15 homes for families raising orphans have been built in the Vitebsk region – in Vitebsk, Verkhnedvinsk, Miory, Glubokoye, Dokshitsy, Orsha districts, and the city of Orsha. 87 children have found their families in these homes. The construction of family-type orphanages will continue in the current five-year period. In the Vitebsk region, according to data as of January 1, 2011, over 2.5 thousand orphans (58.2%) are being raised in substitute families. At the same time, 64% of newly identified orphans are placed in family care. 91 children were adopted last year. -0-