The Mayor of Kazan: “Socially oriented NPOs should have access to all the resources of the municipality”

(KZN.RU, April 18, Ksenia Shvetsova). Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, urged for strengthening the work on supporting non-profit organizations (NPOs) and ensuring all conditions for their development at the meeting of the XXXIII session of the Kazan City Duma. Thanks to the activities of NPOs, the city can attract grant funds to solve social problems and educational tasks, but for this, it is necessary to support them, noted I. Metshin.

Today, a systematic work of non-profit organizations is being built in Kazan, interaction with all levels of government. A special role is played by a large government grant support to NPOs, noted the Mayor of Kazan. At the same time, there are problems related to the coordination of work in support of NPOs. “Consulting, informational, methodical support is needed. I draw the attention of the heads of district administrations to the possibility of NPOs working with the population. Through them, it is possible to attract grants for solving social problems, educational tasks, these opportunities should be used in full”, said I. Metshin.

Rustem Gafarov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, reported on the activities and development of non-profit organizations in the city. He said that today 5834 non-profit organizations are registered in the Republic of Tatarstan, 2395 are in Kazan (41%).

In 2016, Kazan approved a plan to support socially oriented NPOs in Kazan for 2016-2020. An important role in the development of the charity sector is played by the Resource Center “Dobraya Kazan”, where NPOs receive property, educational, consulting and informational support.

Speaking about the financial support of non-profit organizations (NPOs), R. Gafarov noted that grants play a huge role in this. Last year the number of NPOs that received grants at various levels increased several times. In particular, winning the Presidential Grants Foundation contest allowed Kazan organizations to receive funding totaling 132 million rubles. City funds receive another 20 million rubles through republican competitions and other sources. “The grant funds hold dozens of events that are being implemented for the benefit not only of Kazan citizens, but also of the whole country”, said R. Gafarov. He mentioned the festival of children's creativity “Good Wave” bringing together thousands of talented children from all over Russia.

For the first time last year, the project “Good Kazan” held a resource support competition, for which 61 applications were submitted from 26 NPOs. 10 of these charity projects have already helped solve the problems of many citizens.

According to the speaker, this year, 15 more projects are awaiting their implementation. Among them is the initiative of the charity foundation “Alpari”, which created a project on the organization of free rental of special bicycles for children with cerebral palsy in Kazan parks, as well as the charitable foundation “Zabota”, which expands the activities of social taxis.

“The city administration actively implements joint projects with NPOs”, R. Gafarov said and gave specific examples of the implementation of successful projects. Thus, inclusive education is developing in the city, enabling children with disabilities to communicate and interact with their peers in educational institutions. In 2018, the first 8 inclusive schools in the city received specialized equipment for resource rooms as part of the social project. This year, 2 schools and 5 kindergartens from Kazan received similar equipment. In total, Kazan has 35 basic sites for inclusive education, in which almost 900 children are brought up”, said the first deputy head of the Executive Committee.

Every year, Kazan NPOs organize large-scale sports events for people with disabilities, such as the All-Russian swimming tournament for people with Down Syndrome “We will win together”, the festival “Strong spirit”, the All-Russian tournament in athletics memory of Yu.  Krasilnikov, various sports and athletics competitions, noted the speaker.

Culture institutions implement the well-known Kazan project “Zhiznelyub”, which allows elder residents to do in for sports, work, study mobile technologies, household, mental arithmetic, in general, to live life to the fullest after they retire. Only in 2018, Kazan citizens attended the project more than 80000 times.

“All of the above could be just words if it were not for the successes and good deeds of our socially oriented NPOs”, said R. Gafarov. “All these names are perfectly familiar to all Kazan citizens. This is the foundation named after Angela Vavilova, who created the children's hospice already known throughout the country. This is the Day of Good Deeds, thanks to whose work more than 1500 disabled children got special equipment, Alpari, “Ak Bars Sozidanie”, leading the colossal work of supporting, socializing and rehabilitating children in difficult life situations”.

Thanks to socially oriented NPOs, Kazan citizens in need can get the most necessary things, noted R. Gafarov.

The Mayor of Kazan instructed to strengthen the work and interaction between the structural units of the Executive Committee in support of NPOs. “We need to look for opportunities to provide comprehensive support, including legal and property. This work should be well-managed, socially oriented NPOs should have access to all the resources of the municipality”, summed I. Metshin.