ULAN BATOR, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Mongolia celebrated International Day for Protection of Children, or Children's Day, on Friday in a bid to safeguard the rights and interests of children.
Mongolia began marking the day as an official public holiday since 1996, and various activities, including sports contests and cultural concerts have been arranged to celebrate the occasion.
On this day, officers of charity organizations and volunteers visited orphanages, where they held educational workshops and handed out gifts to children.
According to the Mongolian National Statistical Office, children under the age of 18 accounted for over 35 percent of Mongolia's roughly three million people by the end of 2017. In other words, Mongolia is a very young nation.
There were 75,734 newborns in Mongolia last year, which was down 4.6 percent from the previous year, said the office in a statement on the occasion of the International Children's Day.
Mongolia established The Order of Maternal Glory in 1957, a Soviet civilian award created in 1944. In Mongolia, it is awarded to mothers who give birth to four or more children and ensures due care for their health, education, physical, spiritual and moral development.。
There were about 220,000 awardees of the Order of Maternal Glory in Mongolia as of 2017, and a total of 555 mothers across the country received the award on Friday.
International Children's Day was established in 1949 by the Women's International Democratic Federation. Currently, many countries in the world annually celebrate the day on June 1.
