Dear children! Respected teachers and parents!

Knowledge Day is a celebration for schoolchildren and students, teachers and parents, grandmothers and grandfathers, because “we all begin as children”. On this day each of us remembers the time when, with a bouquet in our hands, we ourselves strode to school and listened with awe to our first teacher. And even when many years have passed we remember with gratitude our favourite tutors.

From the 1st of September in Russia a single telephone helpline for children, teenagers and their parents will be put into operation. Before the end of 2010 this helpline will be enabled in all regions of the country. A call on 8-800-2000-122 will be both free and anonymous. This project began as part of the Fund for the support of disadvantaged children’s national information campaign against child abuse.

The purpose of this telephone number will be explained to the youngest children by ‘smeshariki’ and to teenagers by characters of new comics. Leading Russian experts interested in the creation of extraordinary psychological services to deliver highly professional help to children, teenagers and their parents were invited to participate in the press conference. Among them were the chairperson of the board of administration of the Fund for the support of children Marina Gordeeva, the vice-chairperson of the Council of Federation of the Russian Federation Svetlana Orlova, the authorised Children Rights Ombudsman for the President of the Russian Federation Pavel Astakhov, the President of the National fund for the Protection of Children from Abuse (Association of Helplines for Children) Marina Egorova, the Deputy Minister of Social Protection for the population of Ryazan region Natalya Kovacheva and other expert practitioners. As part of the press conference a video conference was planned with the regions that are among the first to link up with the single national number – Ryazan region and Altai region.

within the Moskovskaya oblast’

A single child helpline for the whole of Russia has just been launched within the Moskovskaya oblast’ as part of the national awareness campaign to counter child abuse.

At the Moscow government’s plenary session on 24th August, the decision was taken to sign a suitable agreement with the Child Support Fund for children from difficult backgrounds. The system introduced will allow the authorities to gather as much information as possible about any infringement of children’s rights, ensuring that they are passed on to the agencies and institutes which work to defend the rights of young people.

at Orphanage No. 9 in Cherepovets

We congratulate the members of the mini project “Life Vector” from Orphanage No. 9 in Cherepovets! The children have completed their work on the creation of an educational computer programme “Life Code”.

Youth Conference 2010

The International Youth Conference 2010 will be held in Mexico (in the town of Leon) from 23rd to the 27th August 2010. The organizers of the event include the Mexican government, UNICEF, UNFPA (the UN Populations Fund), UNIFEM (the UN Development Fund for Women) and the UN’s Development Programme.

Mechanisms for Ensuring Child Participation in the Defence of their own Rights

The Regional Conference

“Me in a World of Rights and Responsibilities:

Mechanisms for Ensuring Child Participation in the Defence of their own Rights”

14th October 2010

On the “Green Wave” campus owned by the Youth Committee of the Volgogradskaya region’s administrative office temporarily labelled “Intellect” as part of an initiative run by the Volgograd Organization for the Support of Disabled Children (VOSDC), a children’s forum was held on “A World without Child Abuse”. This theme was proposed by the ombudsman in the region as part of the national campaign of events against child abuse and in keeping with the prioritised agenda on child policy, as stipulated by the President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev.