The first-ever “Puzijada”, a crawling competition for babies aged 8 to 14 months, was held today at the Primary School “Dr Jovan Cvijić” in Smederevo, together with a parenting forum for pregnant women and young parents.
These activities are being carried out as part of the initiative “Parenthood Caravan: Family at Heart”, run by the Ministry of Family Care and Demography of the Republic of Serbia in cooperation with local governments.
“The main aim of this campaign is to put the family at the centre of social life, to strengthen parenthood and to build a Serbia in which every child will grow up safe and secure. Through our visits to local governments, we want to hear citizens’ proposals and suggestions so that we can work on even better and more effective measures to support families,” said Biljana Rakić, Assistant Minister of Family Care and Demography, on that occasion, stressing that among the countries of the region Serbia has the highest parental allowance and other forms of assistance to families.
The Deputy Mayor of Smederevo, Vladimir Nešić, together with other representatives of the local government, also gave his support to the event, stressing that the City of Smederevo is carrying out numerous activities to improve the birth rate and the conditions for parenthood.
“The City of Smederevo attaches great importance to supporting families and meeting children’s needs, and will continue to do so. This support takes the form of financial assistance to encourage the birth rate through cash payments on the birth of a child, assistance for socially vulnerable pregnant women, co-financing of children’s kindergarten attendance, the purchase of textbooks for first-year pupils, the distribution of New Year gift packages for children up to the age of 10 and other benefits, and work on expanding kindergarten capacity is also planned,” the Deputy Mayor said, among other things.
The interest in the “Puzijada” was shown by the large turnout of parents with babies, who after the competition also had the opportunity to learn more about what they need to know to care for their babies properly from the moment they come home from the maternity ward and throughout their further growth and development.
All the participants in the “Puzijada” received gifts, diplomas and medals, because all babies are winners, and the two youngest participants in this unusual competition also received car seats provided by the Road Traffic Safety Agency.
The main aim of events like this is to highlight the importance and strength of the family, and how important the bond is between parents and children, and also between the local community and the state.
