Russian government to discuss new federal program "Children of Russia"

At one of the forthcoming sessions, the Russian government will discuss a new federal target program for 2003-2006, called "Children of Russia," announced Russian Vice Premier Valentina Matviyenko, addressing the Friday enlarged session of the Board of the labor and social development ministry.

According to Matviyenko, the program will mostly focus on measures to prevent homelessness and child neglect, and will come complete with subprograms entitled "Healthy Child" and "Disabled Children." The program "Children of Russia" was ordered by the labor and social development ministry.

Matviyenko said up to 12 million children will be sent to recuperation centers this year.

She also said the quality of social services lent to elderly people and invalids had improved. Over the past two years, the state allocated around 6 billion rubles /1 euro is 29.3 rubles/ for elderly people's homes and is planning to allocate 3 billion more, reported Matviyenko.

According to her words, 2 billion rubles will be allocated to orthopedical workshops this year. In 2001, this figure was estimated at 670 million rubles.