The Gomel region of Belarus which is in the far South East corner of the country bordering the Ukraine, is only 100km from Chernobyl. The radioactive cloud formed by the explosion 22 years ago drifted over Belarus and in particular the Gomel region. As a result the land became heavily irradiated, impossible to live on, and everyone was forced to leave their homes. Many 1000's of families and complete communities were moved off their land where they lived a very basic rural life for generations, and brought to live in the outskirts of the city of Gomel and other cities throughout Belarus, without work and without the ability to cope with urban life - a totally alien existence which some embraced, many were driven to despair, and many became very ill.
Twenty two years on the children we now support were born into these families in Gomel and its suburbs. Their parents have illnesses related to the Chernobyl fallout as do many of the children and so the orphanages and schools which we support specialise in looking after those children with many challenging conditions such as sight problems, learning difficulties, blood disorders, leukaemia, thyroid problems, etc. Typically orphanages in Gomel region cater for about 150 to 200 children who live and learn there 7 days a week from the age of 4 to 16 or 18 depending on the establishment. These orphans are both genuine orphans as we understand the term (life expectancy is very low) or social orphans created by the fact that their parents are incapable for many reasons of looking after them.
This year’s Shoebox Appeal will touch many hundreds of children and families through the Chernobyl Children’s Charity - a Gomel based charity set up by the state to help these children. Members of Gomel Lions Club work closely with the charity. The Chernobyl Children’s Charity accepts delivery of our lorry load of shoeboxes and parcels and distributes it over a period of a couple of months. This year the load includes about 160 personally addressed cases of goods and shoeboxes to about 100 individual addresses which are based in schools, orphanages, kindergartens (2 of them still operating in the contaminated zone), Large destitute family groups, single parent family groups and specialist goods such as a request for English language books to School 71 (the secondary school specialising in languages) and some technical books requested by the ophthalmologist at School 27 where we have already set up a Lions Centre of Excellence for Children’s Eye Disorders.
When the lorry leaves the warehouse on September 10th, the load this year will total over 8000Kg with a calculated (second hand goods) value in the order of £12,500 and will completely fill the 40 ft curtain sided trailer – the true new value is in excess of £50,000. It includes 28 second hand refurbished computers and laptops plus computer spares and printers; toiletries; toys; clothing; canned food; paper; books; stationery; bicycles; hand tools; and a miscellany of other items of everyday life.
We as the organisers of the annual event, now in its 8th year, are delighted at the continued success and thank everyone who plays any part in its operation from packers, sorters and lorry loaders, children and schools who donate shoeboxes, Clubs who purchase goods to make up both bulk supplies and shoeboxes, those clubs and individuals who donate both time, expertise (in the case of the computers) and money to the project and last but not least the The Gateway Project in Queenborough, Sheppey, in Kent who have donated a massive area of their premises and the use of their fork lift truck and a driver, and generally could not have been more helpful.
