Home
Chernobyl Disaster
Belarus
Current
Year
Fundraising
Donations
Acknowledgements
Belarussian
Gallery
Albanian Gallery
Contact Us
Our History
2006
Belarus
Positive
Aid did itself proud again this year. This time we did a solo trip, without
the usual truck convoy. Our truck, donated by Tom O'Donnell International Transport,
was driven by Emmet O'Donnell and Kenny O'Flaherty on the outward trip
from Castlegregory to Rudensk orphanage, in the Minsk region. This was completed
in 3 days, including passing customs and the unloading of the truck.
The load of aid was in association with Dunshaughlin Chernobyl Group,
Co. Meath, and was mainly comprised of building material for the continued renovation
of the orphanage. The 3 year programme is now completed and this orphanage is
a credit to all the volunteer workers and the director, who have done trojan work
despite the inevitable problems and hitches they encountered, and is a shining
example to what can be done, and is even a 'showhouse' in the Minsk region.
Kenny
returned to Ireland for work commitments and John Maunsell replaced him on the
return truck journey to Ireland with Emmet.
In September Diarmuid Keane
went to an orphanage called Berisino and renovate a kitchen, again teaming up
with Kevin O'Halloran, Tom Dennehy and Tom O'Sullivan. They striped the old tiles
off and replaced them in the new.
Christmas
Even though Christmas in Belarus is on January 7th, there
was an 'Irish' Christmas party for the children in the Smorgon orphanage on December
25th and as you can inagine, went down well ! The party was funded by Chernobyl
Aid Galway, who are also funding the renovation of the main building. The
work is being done by local labour with the older children helping, which is giving
them a start of knowledge in a trade. The work is a credit to all involved and
to the Galway group. We will doing work here in 2007 and are co-funding a new
roof.
(see webpage "Current Year")
More images on page Belarussian Gallery
2005
Belarus
Our trip this year took us to the town
of Borisov, north of Minsk. We travelled to an orphanage which houses 137 children,
some of which come to Ireland for R+R. It is a well-run establishment and is in
relatively good condition - except for the shower blocks and toilets. Our mission
on this trip was to update these.
There were eight volunteers from Kerry
who travelled to Belarus: Diarmuid Keane and Kenny O'Flaherty along with Kevin
O'Halloran, Paddy Joe O'Sullivan, Tom Dennehy, Mike Callaghan, Tom Reidy and Paddy
O'Sullivan.
We were very pleased with the amount of work achieved in the time we
were there. Congratulations and thanks to all involved. The children will benefit
greatly from the work carried out.
All in all a job well done.
2004
Belarus
Our trip to Belarus was yet another success. Tom O'Donnell donated one of his
trucks again and indeed travelled himself with Kenny O'Flaherty. They transported
a load of aid for Chernobyl Orphanage Appeal of Charleville, Co. Cork,
to the Humanitarian Initiative Support Centre in Brest where Valentina
Bedritskaya welcomed them. From there the aid was distributed to various centres
around the Brest region, such as Perkavichi Sanatorium school, Pinsk Association
of Invalids, Malarita Regional Hospital, the maternity hospital in Brest, Kobrin
preschool and many needy families.
Computer
This year again we were very fortunate to be donated a computer by staff
members of SCI Test Engineering & IT of Fermoy, Co. Cork. This was donated
to Valentina and her organization for their administration work. A special mention
to Fergal O'Dowd (Cloghane and Fermoy) for organizing it.
Visit
to Chernobyl Area
Tom and Kenny visited some villages in
Southern Belarus close to where the Chernobyl Power Plant is located, - many of
which are now abandoned. One such village, Savichy, 15 km away from the plant,
was a thriving village with great prospects where the local administration (government
/ council) was situated. It was such a sad sight to see a former fine school and
dwelling houses falling into ruin.
Our guide, who came from the village originally, explained to us that they
were not told of the accident but heard of the disaster from the local plant workers
and soldiers. She said a week had pasted before any action was taken. By then,
for many, it was too late.
In another abandoned village, we saw an elderly
woman who is the sole occupant of the village, who chose to return there to live
and eventually die there rather than in a strange city. Many villages were bulldozed
and buried, and even today people are prohibited to enter many of these areas.
In the occupied villages near here, it is the norm and 'expected' that children
will have thyroid cancer.
The locals never got compensation for their
lost houses and land and they say that the soil is not as fertile as before.
A memorial of a 25-year-old soldier has been erected in the nearby town of
Bragin. He represents the local workers (mostly soldiers) who lost their lives
in the 'clean up' of the explosion, and is now a tourist attraction.
It can be difficult to visualize any positives from this awful atrocity, however,
with many people visiting the region that would never have, including ourselves,
tourism is increasing as well as Aid Workers, which boosts the local economy of
the region. It makes us more aware how brittle life can be. The inhabitants of
this area are of the opinion that the politicians (government) do not care about
the lives of who they are supposed to be representing.
It was reported
that the Chernobyl Power Plant was totally shut down in Dec. 2000. Locals will
tell you otherwise.
Sonny Moriarty, Cara O'Donnell (Kerry), Marie O'Connell
(Ballyvourney, Co.Cork) and Emmet O'Donnell all travelled by air and worked as
volunteers.
People in Need Telethon
As the People in Need Telethon only happens every 4 years, we decided to
do something this year. We held a local 'You're a Star' concert in our community
centre in Brandon. It was a brilliant night, comprising mainly of local talent
performing music, song, dance and humour to a full house.
Money raised
from the night was donated to the People in Need Trust, who contributes all proceeds
of that county to local charities, - in our case Kerry. Many thanks to all who
took part, attended and helped in any way.
2003
Albania
We teamed up with
Bus Éireann (Cork) Children's Project to carried 2 trucks of aid
and an ambulance to Albania under Cradle www.cradle-bosnia.org
who operates mainly in the Balkan region. The ambulance was fully fitted, at a
value of €30,000, was co-funded by ourselves (Positive Aid), Cradle
and St. Vincent's University Hospital, Dublin. It was donated to Shkoder
Regional Hospital, (see photo) and
was the first "properly fitted" ambulance there, and is the envy of
all there.
The aid consisted of food, clothes, medical and hygiene products,
and was distributed in Shkoder to a school in which houses 170 girls in dormitories,
and also to 2 kindergarten schools, housing 35 children each. The aid delivered
here supplies the project for the year. Renovation work on the dormitory is progressing
nicely, with a big improvement on before, with new doors and windows fitted and
also toilets and showers installed.
Also, Cradle brings aid to many very poor families on a weekly basis. We
went alone to some of the families to see for ourselves the very bad conditions
that are living under. One particular family lived in a one room shack having
to put their kitchen outside because of lack of room.[Above and also (see
photo)]. Their 4 children sleep in a fiberglass dome shaped room, with no
insulation so in the winter it is very cold and in the summer it is very hot with
a strong smell from the fiberglass. However the family are very grateful for the
aid. There are many families with similarly bad conditions which Cradle
supply.
Aid was transported from Shkoder the impoverished village of
Barbullush 25 kilometers away, where we met with the Mayor of Shkoder, Ormir Rusi.
It is hoped that a Day Center will be built for the younger children. This is
a good idea as the children can play, learn, be fed and their hygiene needs attended
on a daily basis. It is also easier to monitor their welfare and health. A school
is also being renovated here as the building is in poor condition.
Many
thanks to Kastriot Faci for all his help on our stay in Albania.
See
the "Albanian Photo Gallery" page for more photographs
Belarus
Once again Kenny O'Flaherty, Sonny Moriarty, Kevin O'Halloran, James
Sheehan along with Pat McCarthy flew to Belarus in May to continue our work with
Chernobyl Aid Ireland Ltd. in the renovation of the dormitories in the Grozovo
orphanage, and advise them about different crops and the best way to set them
on the farm for higher yield. In this year we erected scaffold and stripped the
walls of a dormitory of old plastering and prepared it for new plaster.
Brendan Spillane (Plant Hire) made a buggy that was donated to the farm-hand who feeds the pigs and cows in Grozovo. She used to bring the feed through the fields encountering a very hard draw of 0.5km with an old 2-wheel buggy. This is a huge improvement and it was greatly appreciated by her. Many thanks to Brendan.
2002
Our trip to Belarus reached new
heights this year. We performed a feat never before undertaken by anybody, for
Chernobyl Aid Ireland Ltd.
Quite a lot of excavation work needed
to be done at the Grozovo orphanage which required machinery. Kenny O'Flaherty
and Paul O'Donnell overcame this problem by driving a truck to Belarus containing
an excavating machine and a site-dumper and brought them back again on their return
journey when the work was completed.
Roadways, grading gardens, digging
drains to lay pipes, foundations of the henhouse and boiler house were just some
of the work done. A lot more work was carried out than had been anticipated, which
made the trip a huge success.
Workers
Mike McMahon (Ballymacelligott,),
Sonny Moriarty (Castlegregory), Hugh Breen (Tralee), Kevin O'Halloran (Ballyduff),
James Sheehan (Ardfert), and Pat McCarthy (Tralee) all flew to Belarus to join
Kenny and Paul. They carried out various construction work on the hen house and
the restoration of the dormitory. Well done lads.
Computer
We were very fortunate to be donated a computer by staff
members of SCI Test Engineering & IT of Fermoy, Co. Cork. This was received
with great appreciation. A special mention to Fergal O'Dowd (Cloghane) for organizing
it.
Football Gear
We received
a lot of football gear from various people and companies. Helen Besling, of Castlegregory
Furniture Store , and
Chris Power of Bray Sports Centre, Co. Wicklow,
donated footballs, boots and indoor soccer balls for the winter when the children
cannot go out to play because of the snow and harsh weather.
SPONSORS
Micheál Moriarty Construction Co. Castlegregory
Brandon
Bay Boat Hire
- Duántacht Bréanainn
O'Connors Guesthouse
Cloghane
Brendan Spillane
Plant
Hire
Lyne's
Cottages Brandon
[Donations][Acknowledgements][Belarussian Gallery][Albanian Gallery][Contact Us][Webmaster]