‘Who is ready to solve problems in the first instance in favour of family and children? Of course, women’

“Tatarstan has a lot to learn from”

State Duma Deputy, Deputy of the Committee on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood Elena Vtorygina, who was one of the initiators of the meeting, came to Kazan for the second time. During her first visit, she got acquainted with the Merkhemet — Miloserdie association and decided: “My women should definitely be in Tatarstan, they should get the best experience that this republic has today.”

Elena Vtorygina told reporters about the social projects being implemented in the Arkhangelsk region. Among them — Family of Pomorye, Women's Dialogue, Dreams Come True, Territory of Childhood. The initiatives are aimed at forming parent communities, supporting women, and even building playgrounds.

The deputy of the Committee on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood stressed the importance of sharing experiences between the subjects. According to her, the Women's Chamber of Deputies of the Arkhangelsk Region is ready to study how the Tatarstan public association works, what initiatives it puts forward, and, in turn, also share experience.

“I would really like the deputies of the two subjects to be friends, take the best from each other and implement these projects in their territories. Again, Tatarstan has a lot to learn from," she said.

“We're on the same wavelength”

Cooperation between Russian regions is especially important today. After all, the challenges facing society are the same for all regions, State Duma Deputy Tatyana Larionova assured.

“We have a very complicated demographic policy all over the country today. Every year we wait for an increase in the number of children born and every year we state that this is not happening again. Unfortunately, we see every year that the number of divorces remains significant," she complained.

“Who understands these issues in the first instance with their heart and soul and are ready to solve these problems in favour of the family, in favour of the children? Of course, women," the deputy concluded.

According to her, Tatarstan and Arkhangelsk deputies can teach each other a lot.

“When I got acquainted with the experience of the Arkhangelsk region, I realised that we were on the same wavelength. We have the association of women deputies Merhemet — Miloserdie, they have the Women's Parliamentary Chamber. What is called twin sisters. Moreover, they have so many interesting forms of work that we also need to introduce into our practice," Tatyana Larionova said.

Signing of a cooperation agreement

Deputy Chairman of the State Council Marat Akhmetov opened the meeting. He congratulated the guests on the 30th anniversary of the election of the first convocation of the Assembly of Deputies of the Arkhangelsk Region, and also highly appreciated the activities of the association of women deputies of Tatarstan, who introduced more than 20 socially significant bills and developed over 110 initiatives.

The head of the Merkhemet — Miloserdie association, Alsu Nabieva, told the guests about the history and activities of the association, which currently includes 16 participants. Women-deputies united in 2009 and since then have been implementing projects aimed at social support for citizens, protection of motherhood and childhood, strengthening the institution of family and marriage, and so on.

Similar associations have been established in every municipality of Tatarstan, Nabieva noted. A cooperation agreement has been signed with each district. The main task of the Merkhemet — Miloserdie association is legislative activity aimed at solving social issues. “With the participation of the association's members, 86 draft laws have been introduced over 5 years of work, most of which related to education and social support," Alsu Nabieva stressed.

Besides, Merhemet — Miloserdie deals with issues of maintaining women's health, develops women's entrepreneurship — for example, a project has been launched in Tatarstan to train the wives of mobilised military personnel. Women deputies are also implementing educational projects. As an example, Nabieva cited the project “War does not have a woman's face”, dedicated to the participants of the Great Patriotic War, home front workers.

The guests also told about their socially significant activities. At the end of the meeting, the association of women deputies of the State Council of Tatarstan and the Women's Chamber of the Arkhangelsk Region signed a cooperation agreement.