On May 14, Tatarstan Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov and Vice President of the Center of the National Glory Natalia Yakunina signed a cooperation agreement aimed to implement a set of Tatarstan government programmes on supporting families and mothers, as well as the national Sanctity of Motherhood national programme.

Since 2006 the programme has been run by Russian public associations, including St Andrew the Apostle Foundation and National Glory Centre. Its purpose is to form a public attitude to family and motherhood, fatherhood and childhood as to greatest values through restoring the spiritual and moral potential of the Russian family. The programme purports to instill family values to the society and render social and psychological support to socially vulnerable pregnant women and young mothers.

Natalia Yakunina said that the signing of agreement is very important. “Over the last years we have cooperated with the republic, Tatarstan representatives take part in a number of our programmes. Documenting our relations, however, is very important, because Tatarstan is one of Russia’s rapidly developing regions. The republic experience may be unique and needs to be spread to other regions,” she stressed.

Khalikov said Tatarstan does a lot to have high birth rates, including new places in kindergartens, medical centres, etc. “The Foundation we signed the agreement with today resolves the same issues without large funds: through kind words, proficiency of health professionals, public and mass media,” he stated, adding that the agreement should help combine state and public programmes run by the Center of the National Glory.

Head of State Duma committee for family, women and children Elena Mizulina is confident that the Sanctity of Motherhood programme is very effective. Tatarstan is the 22nd region to sign a cooperation agreement within the programme.

“The effect in Russia is great. Through the You Are Not Alone project run within this programme, we see 20 to 30 per cent of women refusing to have an abortion,” she claimed.

Initiatives proposed by Tatarstan are very important but we should not stay put, she says.

“Birth rates in the republic are high but we talked just now that the numbers of 2013-2014 froze. The number of women of reproductive age decreases, which will continue until 2020, meaning there are potentially fewer young women capable of becoming mothers. But we must not allow birth rates to drop. We do count on cooperation with Tatarstan,” she concluded.