Hunger-strikers for places in kindergartens in Volgograd Region are ready to continue their protest action

Olga Filippova Elena Berezina, two residents of the city of Volgograd, and Natalia Sizukhina, a resident of the town of Mikhailovka, who participated in a hunger strike demanding increase of the number of kindergartens, declared their intention to repeat the protest action if the situation would not change for the better.

Let us remind you that the women joined the all-Russian protest action of the movement "For affordable preschool education for Russian children", which was held on October 21-23.

Dasha, the daughter of Elena Berezina, was denied of transfer to a senior group of the kindergarten, which she attended. Initially, they argued that the child lagged behind other children of her age and that they had no personnel to teach the child personally, then they asked to come back later; and when Dasha's mother came, no places were available, the mother was told that "there were 36 people in the group".

The Olga Filippova's daughter has been standing in line to the kindergarten for two years already and has a line number of 180. The officials from the department keep answering: "The situation is tough; please, wait."

Natalia Sizukhina put her daughter in the list of children in need of preschool institution when the child was six 1.5 months old. Now, she is 2.5 years old, and she still got no place at the kindergarten, the "Kasparov.Ru" reports.

Mother residing in Volgograd wrote five letters to Russian President, 25 letters - to representatives of the local authorities; they organized and conducted several protest actions, including two hunger strikes and two pickets.

The hunger strike is over, the woman-participants feel good, the "Vse dlya Vas" (All for You) reports.

According to Olga Cheburakova, the coordinator of the public movement "Volgograd Parents for Children's Rights", the local authorities failed to respond.

"We hope that the All-Russian protest action will lead to solution of the problem at the federal level. We plan to repeat a hunger strike six months later, if the situation does not change for the better," the "V1.ru" quotes Olga Cheburakova as saying.

Let us note that 20 regions confirmed their participation in a hunger strike on October 21-23. The protesters demand the State Duma to approve a two-year programme to create places for all children of the country taking into account the smaller number of children in a group (5 million new jobs, which would take 2.5 trillion roubles); to increase minimum salary of kindergarten teachers by 50 per cent starting January 1, 2012, and to increase the earnings of kindergarten teachers up to the average salary in the country by September 1, 2012; to increase allocation of funds for child's maintenance in kindergarten and to exclude levies from parents.

Besides, the protesters demand to adopt the law on compensation at level of the average salary in the region for commercial kindergarten to the families whose children cannot attend kindergarten because of lack of places. This draft law is in the State Duma since this June 1, the "Baykal24" reports.