Family above all

Sociological studies show that Belarusians highly value their families: over 88 percent of our citizens visit their elderly parents every month or even more often, while the number of families with three and more children has exceeded 115,000

As noted at a round table discussion – Family Values in Belarus’ Information Space: Experience of Expert Assessment, Belarusians view their families as an integral part of their lives. According to the 2019 census, there were 2.6m families in the country.

Svetlana Belash, a consultant of the Population, Gender and Family Policy Department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, believes these family values are much influenced not only by the national traditions but also the attention of our state social policy. Moreover, media coverage of all these aspects is needed since they are also related to ensuring demographic security.

“In the context of expansion of the information space due to Internet resources and communications, it is very important to preserve traditional values of the Belarusian family. Among them are strong marital relations, spiritual well-being, children, and care for older generations. Our main task is to produce a positive information content so that young people, following bright examples, want to have large, friendly and strong families of their own,” she says.

At present, many programmes and activities aimed at supporting families at the national and local levels are in full swing countrywide. Importantly, not only the material aspect (which is certainly important) is in focus but also care and attention.