Mothers won - Russian officials decided not to limit the number of children in foster care
The Russian Minister of Education, Olga Vasilyeva, who had to be under pressure from the public, got into a rather delicate situation retreat from their plans to reform foster families in the country.
Olga Vasilyeva made an official statement, in which she particularly stressed that she herself is categorically against imposing restrictions on the number of foster children.
Such a point was urgently excluded from the prepared draft law on toughening the rules of adoption and guardianship.
Vasilyeva said that the bill as a whole was not coordinated with it, it was prepared by specialists of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, which had been disbanded earlier.
A week earlier, Olga Vasilyeva announced her desire to change the rules of adoption and taking custody as harshly as possible, including the inadmissibility of a large number of children in the family.
She stressed that "a foster family is not an orphanage or a kindergarten, parents simply do not have enough time and attention for all children."
A little later, a document appeared signed by Deputy Vasilyeva, which said that Russians who have three children cannot become guardians or foster parents.
In response, the adoptive mothers of many children who launched a flash mob with a hashtag #first_non_slide in protest.
Mothers published pictures of their large families, covering the faces and silhouettes of those children who are foster, as if striking them out of the family. Women supported their pictures with stories about what could happen to these children if they had remained in boarding schools and orphanages to this day.
Foster mothers from all regions of Russia have joined the parent campaign.
They called Vasilyev and her department think again and do not break the lives of thousands of children across the countryincluding those who are still awaiting adoption.