Minister of Labour and Social Policy Spiro Ristovski and national director of the SOS Children's Village Julijana Gapo signed Saturday memo on cooperation aimed at regulating mutual relations for support of common activities in the future between these two institutions.

Ristovski said that the memo is directed to improvement of situation of the children, building better future and providing prosperity for their better integration in social environment.

- The cooperation will be directed toward improvement of quality and standards of social protection, development of social care programmes, raising the standards for social care quality, improvement of foster families system, finding new forms of care based on family and preventive programmes in a support for families at risk aimed at children to stay with their biological parents, Ristovski said.

Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and SOS Children’s Village will mutually cooperate in providing experts who will train the employees in children’s homes, strengthening children’s capacity in the process of becoming independent until their leaving the institution.

- The government and Ministry of Labour and Social Policy are making concrete steps for all children including here children whop were left without parental care and home. We are creating better living conditions and opportunities for correct growth and development of these children with special accent on their better future by undertaking legal measures and activities, Ristovski said.

He pointed out that the ministry in the past period made serious steps in providing adequate rights for funds, housing and enabling higher education attendance for children without parents and parental care after reaching age of majority and after leaving the institution or foster family.

The SOS Children's Village in Skopje celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2011 and it was right time to make more serious steps for support of these children by the state, Gapo said.