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The voice of Hillam village. founded 1989 by Mary Little. Delivered free to all homes in Hillam. Volume 27 Issue 3. June-July 2014
CHERNOBYL CHILDREN’S PROJECT UK The Final Humanitarian Aid Convoy to Belarus Our departure from our base at Thorpe Willoughby on the final convoy for Chernobyl Children’s Project UK (CCP) was on the afternoon of Good Friday 18th April, This followed many months of endeavour by our wider aid team and included aid to procure and process, six vehicles to load, administration and all the logistics required to take over 50 tonnes of aid to designated receivers in Belarus. The lucky twelve selected to convoy therefore represented many more team members from all over the north and mid England who had participated in the preparation and we were grateful for the enthusiastic send off as we made for the ferry in Hull. A seventh vehicle from the southern charity Lifeline 4 Chernobyl (LL4C) joined our team so we were 14 in all. The LL4C large vehicle was driven by Ann Jones, a Trustee of LL4C and Steve Parry. There was a lot interest in Eastern Europe by drivers and pedestrians who took ‘double takes’ when they saw a lady driving such a large vehicle. We had two other ladies in the team, Veronica Robins from Catterick and Jenny Allison from Monk Fryston and their presence certainly attracted the attention of the all male queue of drivers in the Polish customs hall, some of whom had been there for several days. This resulted in some fortuitous queue jumping and speeded our exit from Poland. Across ‘no man’s land’ and into the Belarusian Customs for an overnight crossing with all the usual delays which meant over 36 hours of work until the final vehicle was cleared into Belarus. After a brief rest the convoy split for their various destinations - to Cherikov on the far north east border close to Mother Russia, to Minsk the capital and in the centre of Belarus - to Rogachev a town where CCP support a family association for disabled children and have a home there for five very disabled young adults - to Mozyr and a large institution for mentally handicapped adults. Three of the vehicles crossed the 350 miles to the city of Gomel to make deliveries to a school, an association that caters for over 1000 diabetic children and young adults, a charity that supports families with disabled children in the many high rise flats and to Telyashi a local village and CCP ‘s partner organisation who support many families and charities. Deliveries completed the team reformed in the city of Gomel two days later to make visits by day to schools and institutions who were previous receivers of aid and it was time also for some ‘R&R’. The Chair of the Trustees of CCP, John Gater, was on a visit to Gomel and hosted a party for the aid team to congratulate us on the work we had done on past and the present convoys. It was a time also for me as Aid Co-ordinator to thank the wider team at home in UK who had worked so hard in the preparation for this our final CCP convoy. We remembered those in the team that have passed away, Norman Rumford, John Withers both of South Milford, Frank Robins from Catterick and Kathleen Campey from Brayton, Selby. On Sunday 27th April and a 7am start we left Gomel for the return journey west across Belarus, Poland, Germany and Holland for the Tuesday night ferry at Europort, Rotterdam and home on the Wednesday morning . So that is it – the final CCP convoy. After 15 years, over 50 convoys and over 1500 tonnes of great aid the Trustees of the charity (CCP) have made the decision to cease supporting aid convoys to concentrate their limited financial resources on their other longstanding projects in Belarus. However, the energy and enthusiasm within the Aid Team is still strong and a meeting will be held shortly to decide just what the future holds. Do we stop? Job done! Do we reform under another name? From my own point of view it has been a fantastic, enjoyable and stimulating experience working with a team of committed people for the benefit of children and adults in Belarus who are not as fortunate as ourselves. Mike Allison. Aid Co-ordinator Chernobyl Children’s Project UK.
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