Voluntary movement in Tatarstan is getting popular, RT Minister of social protection Klaudia Novikova informed on the press conference in the informational agency “Tatar-inform”.

Tatarstan gained abundant experience of voluntary movement. “Voluntary social clinic” opened in Yelabuga in 2002. At present the movement has gotten a mass scale and covers more than a half of the republican districts and cities, Claudia Novikova indicated.

About 45 thousand volunteers took an active part in “Spring Kindness Week” timed to the 60th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. All municipal formations of Tatarstan participated in the republican voluntary action “Kindness Week” in 2006. As a rule, the organizers of voluntary activities are social and educational establishments.

According to the minister’s words, positive tendencies in voluntary movement development of last years require legislation of these activities. In connection with this fact RT Ministry of Social Protection and representatives of voluntary organizations elaborated the project of the bill “About voluntary unions in RT”, which stipulates determination of a volunteer’s legal status, social insurance measures for a volunteer’s services, mechanisms of interaction between voluntary unions and state authorities.

Besides, Claudia Novikova noted that RT Ministry of Social protection planned to hold a constitutive conference on founding Tatarstan Volunteers Union in August of this year. All-Russia scientific-practical conference “Social voluntary work: experience, trends, and development perspectives” will take place in the nearest future.