Chernobyl Children In Need
Behind their beaming smiles lies a deadly disease. But these brave children of Chernobyl were handpicked to come over to Swindon for a respite visit that will incredibly add two years onto their life expectancy. They are all from Belarus and live just 30 miles from the exclusion zone there - meaning practically all the food they eat is contaminated and none of them has a life expectancy longer than 40. But for the short while they were in Swindon, there were smiles all round as the children, aged between 9 and 14, got to visit their first ever zoo.
Vice-president of the Rotary Club of Swindon Thamesdown Bob Barrett said: "The smiles on those children's faces made everything worth it - it was priceless. "They had never been to a zoo before so we organised the trip to the Cotswold Wildlife Park.
"We managed to get a special session where we would feed the penguins and they went mad for it. "These children are from very, very poor backgrounds and the month they spend here in Swindon lengthens their lives by at least two years. "They are such a great bunch of children."
After the visit to the zoo, the children were then taken to a special party at the Supermarine sports club in South Marston, where they played with children from the STEP project - a programme for 10-18-year-olds who had raised money to help fund the trip.
The rotary club has been involved in helping children from Chernobyl for the past four years and each time they arrange a trip and a party to make the visit one to remember.
Each year, a different group of children are selected from the country and brought over to Swindon for the invaluable respite. The rotary club is now in the process of applying for a grant that will enable them to buy a bus to take children in Belarus to the hospital appointments they need every week.
CCIN
Can you remember the Chernobyl disaster in 1986? The population of Belarus can.
Chernobyl released more radioactive contamination than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs combined, producing more than 200 times the Caesium contamination of the two nuclear bombs.
Around 70 percent of the fallout settled in Belarus where more than 3,500 settlements, including 27 towns, and more than 2 million people were exposed to contamination. It's now over two decades since the accident and the true effects on the gene pool are very concerning.
What would you be prepared to do to give an extra two years of life to a child?
Chernobyl Children In Need is a charity committed to help alleviate children's suffering in this afflicted region in a number of ways: building and improvement projects, humanitarian aid shipments, and respite holidays in UK. Doctors estimate that children from Belarus visiting Britain for one month, can increase their immune system by two years and hence their life expectancy. The fresh air and the uncontaminated food and water in Britain have a dramatic effect on their depleted immune systems.
The Rotary Club of Swindon Thamesdown is supporting the children of the Kalinkovichi District, Gomel region in Southern Belarus, which received most of the fallout from the disaster, by funding days out for the children whilst they are in Swindon area for respite care. This summer the club took them to the Cotswold Wild Life Park and held a garden tea party with a children's entertainer. A local salon 'Goldsworthys' gave the children a wonderful experience by cutting, washing and styling their hair.
Club members, as individuals, have sponsored over 40 children by paying £12.50 per month per child to provide school dinners. This is often the only meal the children eat all day and provides them with the nutrition they need to fight off infections, colds and flu.
More information on the work the club have done for the children can be found on other pages of this web site.
If you wish to know more about the CCIN Charity and the work it does please go to the following web link:
This photograph is of a typical home in Ozanichi
