21 May 2011, 22:30
Thirty Volgograd residents join nationwide hunger strike, demanding to solve shortage of kindergartens
In Volgograd, 30 women, whose children have no places in kindergartens, have joined the three-day nationwide hunger strike in defence of children's right to free preschool education.
The hunger-striking women demand to ensure places in kindergartens for all children in Volgograd by April 1, 2013. They also demand payment compensations to those parents, whose child cannot get into kindergarten after the age of one and a half years, till the time he or she goes to school, and stand for increased funding for preschool institutions and higher salaries for educators there, the Radio Liberty reports.
From May 20 on, the Russian nationwide hunger strike was strengthened by 10 residents of Vladivostok, 30 residents of the Sverdlovsk Region and other regions of Russia, the "Interfax" reports.
In total, the all-Russian hunger strike involved 165 persons from 49 cities. Another protest action of this sort in defence of children's rights is scheduled for June 1. The participation of the following cities was confirmed: Arkhangelsk, Volgograd, Yoshkar-Ola, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Penza, Petrozavodsk and Sterlitamak.
