Family Friendly Dining Awards
The Estonian Association of Large Families has once again selected family-friendly dining establishments for the third consecutive year. This year, a total of 62 food places across Estonia were evaluated, and 48 of them received recognition from families, including five deserving the gold label.
During the campaign, two families visited each food place to assess the child and family-friendliness of the respective dining establishment’s customer service, menu, interior, as well as the availability of activities for children and convenient facilities for changing diapers.
While last year’s map featured 40 family-friendly dining places, this year it has already increased to 48. “It’s great that year after year we can recommend an increasing number of dining establishments to Estonian families, where they can go out to eat together. We hope that many families will find their new favorites among them,” said Aage Õunap, the President of the Estonian Association of Large Families.
“With and for Children” award
The winners of the “With and for Children” recognition awards have been announced. The President of the Republic, Alar Karis, and the Chancellor of Justice, Ülle Madise, congratulated this year’s winners of the “With and for Children” recognition awards in the President’s Rose Garden. The awards were presented for the tenth time.
The award for a child’s remarkable achievement was given to Lisette Lee, a student from Valga Basic School. The creator of change was honored with the establishment of the Children’s House, Anna Frank. The lifetime achievement award went to music educator Kaari Sillamaa. The Children and Youth Jury recognized Peep Tarret, and the encouragement award was given to the Estonian Anti-Doping and Sports Ethics Foundation.
The recognition awards are presented by eight organizations that value children’s well-being: the Estonian Foster Care Workers Union, the Estonian Association of Large Families, the Child Protection Union, the NGO Oma Pere, the SEB Charity Fund, the Social Insurance Board, the Office of the President of the Republic, and the Chancellor of Justice’s Office.
A record number of signatures collected for a statement to the Estonian Parliament
Yesterday, the President of the Estonian Association of Large Families, Aage Õunap, submitted a joint statement opposing cuts affecting children to the Parliament’s Board, with a total of 23,748 signatures collected.
The statement, which was conducted on the Rahvaalgatus.ee platform and concerns all Estonian children, set a record for the number of signatures gathered in recent years. The joint statement requested the Parliament to halt the planned cuts to support for large families, maintain the current system of family benefits, equalize child allowances, introduce indexing for all child allowances, preserve the income tax exemption from the second child onwards, and reinstate the income tax exemption for the first child as well.
The draft legislation concerning families and children will go through its second reading in the Parliament next week. “We hope that the Parliament will engage in substantive discussions, recognize the need for debate and analysis, and refrain from enforcing hasty decisions,” said the leader of the Estonian Association of Large Families.
