The number of children in foster families has increased by about 38 percent in the last seven years, said Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Zorica Kovačević.
At the Open Day event on the occasion of the continuation of the "Every child needs a family" campaign, she pointed out that in the same period the number of children placed in an institution for children without parental care decreased by 46 percent.
"The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare will, through various activities, strive to completely stop placing children under the age of three in institutions by 2017," she emphasized.
The head of the UNICEF representative office in Montenegro, Benjamin Perks, pointed out that it is accepted throughout Europe that placing a child in a foster family, instead of in an institution, is key to respecting the human rights of the most vulnerable.
"We hope that Montenegro will put an end to placing children in institutions in the near future," he said.
In addition to Kovačević and Perks, the British actor Nikolas Lindarst, known for his role as Rodni Trotter in the series "Mućka", and the deputy mayor of Podgorica, Boris Mugoša, also spoke at the event.
The open door day, whose goal is to provide information and invite citizens to become foster parents, was organized by the Center for Social Work Podgorica in cooperation with UNICEF.
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