Every large and low-income family in the Vitebsk region will receive financial assistance for the academic year

August is the busiest time for parents of schoolchildren. They need to get their child ready for the new academic year: choose a stylish yet strict outfit, a comfortable backpack, buy textbooks, and not forget pens, erasers, and other small items that might be needed for school classes. In general, moms and dads have their heads spinning from all this. Not to mention large and low-income families, whose family budget may not withstand such expenses. And here the state provides them with support.

As reported by Galina Kirillova, chief specialist of the Department of Social Support of the Population and Stationary Institutions of the Committee for Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Regional Executive Committee, every large and low-income family in the Vitebsk region will receive financial assistance for the academic year.

Parents of three or more children are entitled to a one-time payment of up to 30% of the subsistence minimum budget for each school-aged child.

The amount is determined by the decisions of city and district executive committees, depending on the local budget volumes. In particular, in Vitebsk, it is 51 rubles for each student.

Additional assistance for September 1 will also be provided to low-income families raising children with disabilities, or to parents with disabilities – through targeted social assistance, enterprise funds, the Social Protection Fund of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, sponsors, public organizations, and charitable foundations.

More than 7,000 families in the Vitebsk region have already received one-time cash payments, including about 5,000 large families. This financial support is provided within the framework of the subprogram "Family and Childhood" of the State Program "People's Health and Demographic Security of the Republic of Belarus" for 2016-2020.

Traditionally, trade unions of the region also help parents pack school bags. As noted by Elena Ustinova, press secretary of the FPH for the Vitebsk region, in 2018, as part of the annual "Trade Unions – for Children" campaign, almost 440 thousand rubles were allocated for these purposes, and the amount is expected to be no less this year. For example, the regional committee of the trade union of education and science workers has already prepared gifts for the children of employees who are members of the organization, including purchasing backpacks with stationery for first-graders from large families in the Vitebsk district.

The Vitebsk regional branch of the Belarusian Peace Foundation is also joining the charitable campaign. For example, the Novopolotsk organization of the BPF announced the "Together to School!" campaign, within which families temporarily in difficult situations will be given stationery purchased by caring citizens, as well as gift certificates for purchasing goods at the local House of Trade. The initiative was joined by the education department of the city executive committee, the BRSM, and the Belarusian Women's Union. Thus, it is possible to support more than fifty Novopolotsk families annually.

This large-scale campaign in the Vitebsk region is aimed at ensuring that every child goes to school prepared and that no everyday concerns overshadow the festive mood on Knowledge Day.

"Vitebskiye Vesti".