Chernobyl Children
The Disaster
During April 1986 technicians were carrying out an experiment at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station that went very, very wrong. Two explosions blew the top off of the reactor building, a fire started in the core that burned for several days blowing a cloud of deadly radioactivity into the surrounding environment.
Belarus received 70% of the radioactive fallout.
Gomel (population 600,00) took the full brunt of this fallout and the people of Chernobyl were exposed to radiation 90 times greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb.
Belarus today
Twenty two years after the accident , the ground of this mainly farming country is still heavily contaminated and will continue to be so for decades to come. Only 1% of the land remains uncontaminated.
People still live with radiation around them; they wash and drink contaminated water; they grow food on the contaminated land and catch fish in contaminated rivers. Only 5% of the children in the Chernobyl region are healthy. Children are being born with thyroid cancer, bone cancer and leukaemia. Some are born with serious deformities such as no arms, no eyes and some with tumors.
The vast majority of people in Gomel live in one or two bedroom high-rise apartments. Rents are so high, compared with the average wage, that there are two or three generations having to share on apartment to make ends meet.
Many children live in orphanages where brothers and sisters in different age groups cannot be together.
Action
In October 1999 the need for help was recognised and a joint funding arrangement was set up between the 75 clubs in our District, known as 105SE and our twin District in Germany, known as 111MN.
The first task was to assist a Home for disabled children located in Gormel, Belarus, by raising funds to undertake refurbishment work and in particular, to provide the Home with inside toilets to replace the shed in the garden that had a hole in the ground.
Many other areas of need have subsequently been identified and include the following typical examples, all of which have been helped either by donation or by supply; Up to date medical equipment for a school with 150 visually impaired children; UV lamps, one for each room, to clean the air and alleviate breathing problems for the 100 children who live in the school from Monday to Friday; Refurbishing the kitchen and sanitary facilities of this school; Similar needs for a school with around 290 pupils with a variety of disabilities such as cerebral palsey, speech disorders, low immune systems.
Shoebox Appeal
This Lions Project has been in operation for serveral years and launched to provide people, of any country, with a bit of help regarding basic needs and perhaps a few luxuries.
Over the past few years the people of Belarus and in particular those living in Gomel have been the designated recipients. Once a year goods are collected and now include not only those items that will fit into a shoebox but, such items as clothing, blankets, toys, books, teaching materials, sports equipment, secondhand computers, nursing equipment and medicines and even lawn mowers. A large container lorry is now required and the market value of a particular load was, for customs purposes, £45,000.
Other actions
Groups of children from the Gomel area come to the UK for one months holiday and the different environment substantially increases their expected life span. These children are hosted and entertained by families within our District 105SE.
