The first stage of the national contest of social projects "Youth of Belarus for Life, Morality and Family Values" is over. The contest was organized by the Ministry of Education, the Belarusian Orthodox Church, the Charitable Foundation for Support of Family, Motherhood and Childhood "Pokrov".

The project grew out of a regional initiative in Bobruisk three years ago and received the national status.

During this academic year, a record number of applications was submitted for participation - from more than 380 youth teams. They include representatives of universities, colleges, schools and institutions of additional education of the country. The top 3 most active and representative participating teams are from Minsk region, Grodno region and Gomel region.

Here is the participants' geographical map:

Minsk 10%

Minsk region 34%

Grodno region 27%

Mogilev region 5%

Brest region 11%

Gomel region 23%

An educational cycle of four webinars was organized for all teams. Each of them came with an original and relevant project idea, which is primarily aimed at solving the problems of modern society. Therefore, participation in the contest "Youth of Belarus for Life, Morality and Family Values" is a kind of opportunity to learn more about strategic planning, teamwork and self-organization with the help of the organizers. This will allow to qualitatively finalize all the initiatives submitted to the jury. Moreover, getting acquainted with the winning projects of previous years and the experience of their successful implementation inspires the participants and energizes their faith in victory.

Among the main objectives of the competition are popularization of basic spiritual and moral values, our national traditional values, citizenship and patriotism, as well as attracting the attention of the society to join efforts in solving the problems of the youth environment in a timely manner.

Works are evaluated in four nominations:

"Youth for FAMILY VALUES for Life";

"Youth for HEALTH for Life!";

"Youth for Creative Breakthrough for Life!";

Youth for COMPASSION for Life!".

Each of these directions translates the formation and strengthening of family values through creativity, compassion and healthy lifestyle.

After finalizing their ideas, about 300 teams started the second stage. Now they are taking the first steps towards the planned result. In the previous month the young people visited boarding homes, visited lonely elderly people and young disabled people, visited monasteries and temples with excursions, involved their relatives and friends in the noble cause. This is just a small part of the children's achievements. You can read more about them at https://fondpokrov.by/news/.

At the moment the participants of the social project contest "Youth of Belarus for Life, Morality and Family Values" actively continue to energize as many people as possible with their ideas and share the details of these activities in social networks. For example, the guys tell how during their visit to the Holy Nativity of the Virgin Mary Nunnery in Brest the project team talked to Matushka Elena and touched the shrines. In addition, the contestants launched a photo challenge #joint cause, which will last until April 30. In their photos they show how necessary it is to get involved in useful activities as a family.

Here is not a complete list of the ideas and initiatives Belarusian youth managed to realize within the framework of one project: drawing contest "Emblem of my family"; social hour among 8-10 grades "Look into the family album"; quest-game "I am a future family man", where the participating teams had to pass all the stations with tasks according to the route sheets; help in cleaning the territory near the teachers' house of elegant age; meeting-conversation "Family is a holy term" with Priest Leonid, the rector of the Pokrovsky church, where he shared his experience in building family relationships, the Orthodox Church's view of the family and answered questions from students and teachers; lullaby song contest; literary vernissage "A world filled with love"; dialog platform "Our friendly family, the main one is dad, then me" with the participation of fathers with many children, godfathers and grandfathers of students.

Summarizing the results and awarding the winners is scheduled for May.