1,700 children live in Moscow region orphanages, over 22,000 have already found families - Astakhov
DUBNA, Moscow region. July 23 (Interfax) - The number of children who live in orphanages in the Moscow region has decreased by more than 22,000 in the past year, Russian children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov said.
"Whereas there were 124,000 orphans in Russia in 2008, last year this figure stood at 74,700. It was an almost 50% reduction. Of them, 24,402 children, or one third of children left without parental care, lived here, in the Moscow region. It was a really huge social burden! But the regional authorities had the courage the tackle this problem," Astakhov said at a ceremony to close an orphanage in the town of Dubna in the Moscow region.
Just 1,700 children still live in orphanages in the Moscow region, he said.
"The other [former orphans] live in families," he said.