More than 200 families from across Poland with over 800 children will be meeting in Nysa from today for three days to participate in the 5th Congress for Large Families organised to “integrate people, support pro-family initiatives, and boost the image of large families in society”. The initiative by the Association “Tre+” (standing for a family with more than one child), which also includes families with over ten children, accompanies parents in finding solutions to daily problems and children in their learning and playing. On Saturday, the Congress will feature an open debate on issues related to family policies and state subsidies to large families. The Minister for the Family, Employment and Social Policies, Elzbieta Rafalska, author of the support programme for families with more than one child “500+”, will also contribute to the debate. The programme, which has been in force for over one year now, provides substantial financial assistance (namely 500 Polish Zloty) for each child after the first. According to the minister, “500+” has helped in countering the democratic decline in Poland, where 100,000 children were born in the first quarter of this year alone, without women having to largely stay away from work, who, according to the critics of the programme, would have preferred staying home to look after their children rather than going to work.