Extended meeting of the St. Petersburg House of Nationalities Coordination Board.
The program Tolerance 2011-15 was discussed in detail during the extended meeting of the St. Petersburg House of Nationalities coordination board on the 28th of June. Representatives of national and cultural autonomies, unions, expatriates' communities, members of the St. Petersburg Foreign Relations Committee and the St. Petersburg House of Nationalities took part in the discussion.
Deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg Foreign Relations Committee S.L.Markov explained different aspects of the new program, its long-turn focus on education, culture and youth policy. When mentioning innovations in the program he spoke in detail about adaptation of children for whom Russian is not a mother tongue to the new social conditions and about measures for integration into society of foreign students in St. Petersburg.
Representatives of national and cultural associations unanimously agreed that it is necessary to maintain the already existing in the city policy of tolerance and peace with focus on helping migrants who recently came to St.Petersburg to be integrated into society.
It was suggested during the discussion to use some positive school practices, such as Russian language courses for non-Russian native speakers and museum programs, at the municipal level.
In the final part of the meeting the General Director of the House of
Nationalities A.S. Dadimova confirmed that national and cultural associations
are, as they used to be, ready to take an active part in life of the multinational
city, use their informational, educational and counselling potential helping
the adaptation of migrant families.
Media source: St. Petersburg Foreign Relations Committee