News Archive
Dates for the Volunteer Programme in Goradishche 2010
Find out about the first orthopaedic surgery under our medical programme
Dates for the Volunteer programme in Goradishche 2010.
- Sun June 6th
- Sun June 20th
- Sun July 4th
- Sun July 18th
- Sun Aug 1st
- Sun Aug 14th
If you are interested in joining us for a week or two, eMail vols@burrenchernobyl.ie
Volunteer Wrap Up '09
The event will be from 2pm to 5pm on Saturday 7th November in Ennis
2:00 - Review of 2009
2:20 - Facebook-Bebo-New Web Page
2:35 - Remembering the Angels
2:45- Volunteer Feedback session
3:30-Tea & Coffee break
4:00 - Group Photos & Memories - 2009 Volunteers
4:45 - News on MyCharity.ie
5:00 - Reflection
For more details click here
July / August 2009 Update
Yazovki
Two groups of men from Roche Pharmaceutical Plant in Clarecastle have been to Belarus to work on the Adult Internat in Yazovki. The first group came the first week of July and the second group arrived on Sept 6th for one week. Work was underway on the third floor of the asylum, the unit for elderly women. This was in a very bad state and in need of repair. Toilet and shower areas needed doing as well as repairs to each of the bedrooms. The living area was one small room where the women were often confined for long periods each day. Yura and his men were working there already so the first group of Roche men slotted in and carried on. They did a huge amount of work, knocking down the old plaster and removing a wall to make a bigger day room; they removed old tiles and doors and then began the job of plasterboarding and plastering the entire corridor and rooms. We ordered new PVC doors for the shower, the corridor exit and the exit onto the balcony.
The men stayed in Minsk and were ferried each day back and forth to the work. They left at eight each morning and came back after eight each evening. Yura and myself kept them supplied to the best of our ability with instruments and materials, cement, plasterboard, tiles. By the end of the week much of the tiling had been finished and the project had been advanced to a great degree. There was a quick visit to the Mary Rice Centre and to the children's orphanage.
The men returned to Ireland very satisfied with their work - glad that they had been of use, happy with the amount of work done and aware of the appreciation of BCP and the Director of Yazovki for their efforts.
On my return to Ireland, there was a follow up meeting with Roche where they outlined their work and I gave an input of the importance of the Roche support to BCP projects. Alona, the interpreter had been on site in Yazovki for the entire week with the men and they were very happy with her help. She also attended the meeting in Roche and was ale to thank all concerned from the Belarus perspective. Yura and his men continued the work during the summer and on Sunday 6th of September the old ladies moved into their refurbished quarters.
Our thanks to all those who made this possible!
That same evening the second group of men arrived to Minsk airport from Roche. Again, Yura and myself had tried to be ahead of them by having a good supply of materials on site to enable them to begin work straight away. This group were working on the second floor unit where the work was not as heavy but was basically the same as on floor three.
Again it was a very successful and busy week, Alona was on site again to help with the translations and everyone was happy with the progress. Some of the men paid a quick visit to the Children's orphanage, to the cemetery and to the Mary Rice Centre.
Eddie Corry is the Chairman of RocheAid and was able to liaise with his committee members in Belarus and at home. During the week they made a quick decision to further funds to BCP to enable new doors be purchased for this unit. RocheAid Groups will travel to Belarus again in the spring of 2010.
Official paperwork for the Department of Humanitarian Aid is done by Tamara in Minsk . This involves collecting all the receipts and doing the documents in the format required by the Department. The Papers go first to the Internat for checking and to be stamped and signed. An official letter then returns to the office from the Department and is kept on file. This all happens now under the Dobra Tut banner.
Cherven Children's Orphanage
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Volunteers from Minsk made several trips to the orphanage one of them wrote a very moving piece for website.
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Gilly Kaar was in Minsk studying and visited Cherven on a couple of occasions with her son Dylan and her mother. She will hopefully come back as a volunteer later on.
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Pauline Nugent and three Olympic volunteers visited Cherven and spent this year getting to know the place. They were very happy with their reception and hope to come back next year with more people now that they know the run of the place.
Kylb
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Kylb won first place in the games event in Latvia and were very happy. We donated a load of books to them, some computer monitors, and some Pampers.
Svir
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The work finished in Svir in May. They needed help with some small items which I sorted and have also asked for help with a sewerage pump which would cost 3,000,000 roubles.
Summer Newsletter 2009
You can download our newsletter here to find out about all the latest goings on in BCP
Swine Flu Leaflet for Volunteers
Ckck here for all you need to know on swine flu...
Camino de Santiago - 750k Walk
On the 3rd of September next Michael Barrett will embarking on a journey that will take him from France to Spain along the "Camino de Santiago", better known to most as the Route of Saint James or better still the road to Santiago de Compostela.
The exact route is unknown as it originated early in the ninth century after the discovery of the tomb of the apostle Santiago (Saint James).
The route that he will be taking begins in the French town of St jean pied de port and concludes some 750klm later in the Spanish\Galician town of Santiago de Compostela.
It is basically a Pilgrims route, but millions of people have walked the Camino for religious, spiritual and personal reasons. Michael has two reasons for walking this road. Firstly to raise awareness and much needed funding for the Burren Chernobyl Project, and secondly to loose himself for five or six weeks in Nature and the great outdoors and who knows maybe even discover a little more about himself.
Any person wishing to take part in this walk is more than welcome to join in at any stage. Please contact the office for further info.
You can sponsor Michael Barrett on the MyCharity web link: http://www.mycharity.ie/event/michael_barretts_event/
Sponsored Cycle from Perth to Sydney
Andy Kenny, began the unimaginable trek across the length of Australia, from Perth to Sydney for Burren Chernobyl Project on April 5th and is due to finish until May 16th.
Visit Andy's web site, read his blog and help raise funds!
New Logo!
You may have noticed the new logo that the Burren Chernobyl Project have recently adopted. The new logo has been designed by Tessa O'Connor and we say thank you and well done to Tessa for her work!
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