On November 29, 2024, with the blessing of Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavl Veniamin, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, within the framework of the X Belarusian Christmas Readings «80th anniversary of the Great Victory: memory and spiritual experience of generations. The first festival «My Belarusian Family» took place in Minsk on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Union State.
The organizers were the management and staff of the RNPC of Mental Health, the Elizabeth Convent, the Synodal Department for Family, Protection of Motherhood and Childhood of the Belarusian Orthodox Church. The festival is intended to become an annual event and carry the idea of uniting cultural and religious traditional family values of the Belarusian people. The forum is considered by the organizers as a scientific and practical platform for the implementation of the best models and practices in the sphere of interdisciplinary interaction to overcome crisis phenomena in families.
Opening the plenary session, Yulia Kaminskaya, Director of RNPC Mental Health, PhD, Associate Professor, emphasized the special importance of mental health and well-being of families as a determining environment for the formation and shaping of human personality.
The event was held at the RNPC Mental Health Center.
C Archpriest Pavel Serdyuk, head of the Synodal Department for Family, Maternity and Childhood Protection, addressed the festival participants with a welcoming speech and blessing on behalf of the Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus.
Chairman of the Board of the Republican Public Association «Belarusian Children's Fund» Lyudmila Kondrasheva in her report emphasized the priorities in the social state policy towards children, including the reduction of orphanhood, education of personality and inculcation of family values.
Ludmila Kondrasheva emphasized the priorities in the social state policy towards children.
Representatives of the Belarusian Orthodox Church also spoke on behalf of the clergy of the Hrodna Diocese Archpriest Alexander Khombak with a report «Spiritual Values of the Family» and the chairman of the diocesan department for family issues, protection of motherhood and childhood of Brest Eparchy.html">Brest Diocese Evgeniya Morozova together with Valentin Tarasov, psychologist of the Brest Regional Psychoneurological Dispensary. The representatives of the Brest Diocese presented the work of the offices «For Life» with the opportunity to provide psychological and spiritual help and humanitarian support. They also expressed the idea of creating a republican association crisis psychologists under the auspices of the RNPC of Mental Health, which was supported by the organizers of the forum.
«Mental health of the family as a factor of a healthy society» — this topic was disclosed by Natalia Gromova, Head of the sector of narcological monitoring and preventology of RNPC of mental health. Then there were reports from a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, senior inspector-psychologist Natalia Lukashanets, director of the National Adoption Center of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus Tatiana Belevich, director of the Minsk City Center for Social Services for Families and Children Olga Drugal.
After the plenary session, the participants were invited to the practical part of the festival: they were offered thematic master classes.
A cultural program was also offered by the Sisters of Elizabeth Convent.
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