About Fathers’ Day, passportization, and harmony

Yuriy Pavlenko recently summarized the achievements of the Ministry of Family, Youth, and Sport Affairs. There appear to be plenty of plans. The minister has approved programs and concepts for the next five and ten years. No one knows if they will be implemented, since it is not clear which political force will control the ministry after the coalitional distribution of posts. Yuriy Pavlenko tells the readers of The Day about the current situation of families and youth in Ukraine, and which issues deserve his ministry’s special attention in the nearest future.

You recently unveiled the 2006-2015 Demographic Development Strategy. You say that it’s crucial to encourage births, build healthy families, and raise healthy children. What makes this strategy different from previous ones?

“Both the government and Ukrainian society are troubled by the current demographical situation, which is characterized by a low birth rate and high mortality rate, compared to current levels elsewhere. There is also large-scale emigration of Ukrainians abroad.

“Ukraine went into demographic decline in 2004. The figures were lower than demographers’ worst forecasts, although in 2005 the situation improved slightly. Today, an estimated 38 percent of Ukrainian men die prematurely. Ukrainians live an average of 11 fewer years than Europeans. Even these figures are enough to realize the dire demographical situation in our country.

“The previous strategy was obsolete, and the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport Affairs, together with the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Science, began formulating a new strategy aimed at harmonizing the Ukrainian population’s reproduction. The document consists of six parts. They outline the priorities of the ministry’s activities: creating positive socioeconomic conditions for raising families, improving people’s health, and organizing leisure activities. But one should understand that the demographical situation depends on the general development of the country.”

How are you going to implement the approved family policy aimed at “harmonizing family relations” and “building a healthy nation”?”

“In May 2006 the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Concept of the State Family Support Program for 2006-2010, which will organize informational and educational activities for families. Different forms of psychological, legal, and other kinds of assistance related to marriage, family, and children’s education will be improved. An efficient system for monitoring family situations and implementing family policy will also be created.”

How will the ministry monitor family situations?

“In order to determine which families are in great need of state support we have already started documenting families with many children. By June 2006 nearly 70 per cent of the families were registered. During this passportization process we specify the material well being of the family, housing problems, and children’s living conditions in such families. We discovered that up to 35 per cent of these families receive some kind of social assistance. We have also held some public conferences with the Unions of Families with Many Children, where questions related to supporting such families in Ukraine and promoting family values have been discussed.”

What else does the ministry do besides promotional campaigns?

“In 2005 we started to develop an efficient mechanism for implementing the Law of Ukraine “On Preventing Violence in the Family” and a monitoring system. In order to provide assistance to victims of domestic violence we are developing a network of institutions for this category of people. There are about 30 shelters, crisis centers and other institutions for victims of domestic violence in Ukraine. Last year we began implementing a project on introducing new forms of educating orphans and children without parental guardians. In March 2006 the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a document on status norms for SOS- Children’s Villages that will be built with financial support from the Austrian association, SOS-Kinderdorf International.

The XXII International Family Congress “Family — a Community of Love” was held this past spring. Its goal was to develop practical cooperation between the church, state, and scientific, educational, and public institutions to implement programs aimed at improving the status of families in Ukraine. To revive and promote national Ukrainian family values, the All-Ukraine Festival of Family Arts “Family Treasures of Ukraine” was held in May 2006. It was organized in connection with International Family Day, with the winners of regional family arts festivals, the most talented family groups from different parts of Ukraine, taking part in it. The draft of the Presidential Ukase “On Fathers’ Day” has just been prepared to introduce the celebration of Fathers’ Day in Ukraine. It has already been worked on by various executive branch institutions and is now being studied at the Presidential Secretariat.”

PREFERENTIAL CREDITS FOR SCHOLARS AND SPORTSMEN

How efficient are housing credits for young people? The president’s electoral program “Ten Steps toward the People” promised to double the number of credits.

“Today the rules of crediting are much clearer and more understandable than they were several years ago. Objectivity and transparency of issuing preferential credits to young families are ensured by the procedure of selecting candidates with the help of a computer rating system. A computer chooses the next individual to receive a credit according to criteria adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Preference is given to young families with many children, young scholars, young sportsmen who have demonstrated considerable achievements at national and international competitions, talented youth, and socially vulnerable young families. In 2005 the State Fund supporting young people’s housing provided about 15,000 young families with housing through different types of state support. In 2004, 2,744 young families received apartments. Evaluating this progress, we can say that the number of families that received housing increased by 500 percent.”

But 15,000 is not a large number for the whole country.

“The problem is that the State Fund for Young People’s Housing is not a structure subordinated to my ministry. It’s a separate institution subordinated to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The fund was created in 1998, and since then more than 20,000 young families have received credits for building or purchasing apartments. Between 1998 and 2004 the fund helped 7,000 young families, and last year - 15,000. As you can see, there is progress and the promises of the presidential program have been kept. Recently we introduced partial compensation by commercial banks. But, I’m sorry to say that the state is unable to satisfy all housing needs. Just to provide credits to young people who have been on the waiting list since 2005 we have to spend UAH 18 billion, and we only have UAH 135 million.

Have there been any cases of abuse or corruption related to the receipt of housing credits while you have been minister?

“There was some evidence of abuse. But as minister, I was appointed to chair the supervising council of the fund only on Sept. 1, 2005. Before that I had no influence on the fund. But even now cases of abuse are rare. Everything proceeds conversationally, so to speak. Somebody demands money from somebody else, and somebody’s neighbor gets an apartment for a bribe. But no evidence is produced.”

So, you say there is some progress. How are the ministry and the fund going to increase the number of credits?”

“In 2006 we are going to implement two more projects by drawing on non-budgetary financial resources of the State Program on Youth Housing. The first one will be carried out with the State Mortgage institution on credit refinancing. We plan to achieve some results by the end of the year. Another project aiming at creating a system of housing savings has been drafted with the State Savings Bank. We have already signed a preliminary contract with them.”

ATTENTION: CULTURAL HERITAGE

Young people need both housing and work. How is the ministry solving employment problem?

Today, young people between the ages of 14 and 35 constitute 32.8 percent of Ukraine’s population. That’s why a network of youth employment centers, which encourage young people’s business activities and provide some training for them, is being developed. In April 2006, 132 centers began operations. Between last October and this May they have provided 14,000 young people with employment. A total of 100,000 young Ukrainians have obtained work through youth employment centers in one year. We aim to create such multifunctional centers in every regional city, and later in every town.

President Kuchma’s ukase of 1999 focused on the need to revive the movement of students’ and young volunteers’ work teams. That’s why the “Youth Work Teams” campaign became so popular among young people in 2000, especially among students. According to a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, youth work teams are to be formed in every region. This year they will focus on preserving and renewing the cultural heritage of Ukraine. In 2005 we completed a two-year campaign called “Remembering the Past for the Future’s Sake,” in which 6,793 work teams comprising 155,000 young people participated. They restored and rebuilt burial places of unknown soldiers, common graves, and memorials. In October 2005 we summarized the results of the Seventh National Young Peoples’ Business Plan Contest and the Second Young Businessman of the Year competition. About 2,000 gifted young people took part in them.”

FOUR MORE DAYS

What is the ministry’s priority in organizing the health campaign in 2006?

“We want to improve the quality of health services, increase the number of children involved in different forms of organized health- building leisure activities, especially children from socially vulnerable categories. In 2006, three million children are going to improve their health. These are orphans and handicapped children, children from large families and low-income families, children of military and law enforcement personnel, whose parents died in action, children of miners killed on the job, as well as talented and gifted children.

“I must say that my ministry’s priority in improving children’s health is to provide quality services, not boost the number of children. The duration of the health-building term has been increased to 18 days, and topical terms now last 21 days. Earlier, this period did not usually exceed 14 days. This is understandable, because officials tried to involve as many children as they could in order to end up with nice percentages in their reports.

“We are able to improve the health of only 30 per cent of schoolchildren at available facilities. That’s why we cannot abandon school summer camps, which are not health-building but organized leisure facilities, a sort of social assistance, a factor geared to offsetting lack of parental care.

“At last the problem of the Moloda Gvardiya (Young Guards) Children’s Center has been solved, and it is now under the ministry’s management. This will enable us to provide year-round health improvement for children and use this facility’s capacities by 100 percent. The ministry wants to create a new, modern system of children’s rest and recreation. In order to do this the ministry, together with the Institute of Family and Youth Problems, has developed a new concept for building up the health of children, young people, and families with children. This concept is based on new approaches to health-building activities, creating favorable conditions for children, youth, and family recreation. My ministry is emphasizing new priorities: what matters in health building is not statistics but each individual child.”