UNICEF is urging the Government and businesses to provide greater investment and greater access to scale up tailored, holistic and community-based parenting programmes and services to support parents and caregivers, especially for the most vulnerable families.

Family support services are essential at any stage working with the family. The Code on the Rights of the Child puts an emphasis on the importance of the family support services at the central as well as the municipal level. Strong family support services are required to ensure a family environment for every child and to avoid separation of a child from a family. Social welfare staff at central and municipal levels are key for a quality social service.

“Being a parent is the most important job in the world,” says Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF Representative in Georgia. “COVID-19 and its socio-economic consequences has piled new forms of stress onto parents and exacerbated pre-existing vulnerabilities and adversity within families. As we move into the second year of the pandemic, parents and caregivers continue to struggle to keep children learning and their families functioning, often in the face of worsening poverty. Now more than ever, we need to reimagine the support we give to families and parents so that they have the time, resources, and services to give children the best start in life. In partnership with the European Union we will be supporting parents and children in promoting positive parenting and having access to necessary services”  Khalil added.

“Georgia has made good progress on child rights and protection for example by creating a good legal basis with the Child Rights Code and by setting up child protection units in municipalities. But more is needed to further improve the family support services, notably through promoting the parenting concept, further empowering the social workers and full transitioning of institutionalised children to family type homes” - says Catalin Gherman, Deputy Head of Cooperation Section at EU Delegation to Georgia.

To emphasize the importance of positive parenting and family support services, UNICEF, in partnership with the European Union as part of their joint project ‘Strengthening Systems and Services for Child Protection in Georgia” is holding a “Parenting Week”. The campaign in partnership with Parents for Education NGO will engage parents, caregivers, professionals, and children and encourage them to start thinking about sound approaches to positive up-bringing and protecting children’s rights, which can be achieved through positive communication and respect. This includes online webinars, in-person meetings, and social media campaign.

 For further information, please contact:

Maya Kurtsikidze, UNICEF Georgia Communication Specialist, Tel: +995 599 533071, mkurtsikidze@unicef.org, www.unicef.org/georgia, Follow us on Twitter and Facebook