StudentAID Chernobyl: Irish student engagement in post Chernobyl Belarus
Joseph McGrath (Dublin Institute of Technology)
Abstract
Irish students, graduates and even some lecturers have been involved in humanitarian work in post-Chernobyl Belarus since 2000. In that time, we have been responsible for some of the most innovative and ground-breaking work by any humanitarian agency operating there. We are the only Irish representative on the Board of CORE (Cooperation for Rehabilitation of living conditions in Chernobyl affected areas). This is a body made up of leading NGO’s, Local government representatives of Chernobyl-affected regions of Belarus, National Government and the ambassadors of countries with embassies in Minsk, the capital. We are hugely respected for working with local communities, institutions and ministries and we genuinely have created unique cooperative approaches to working with Belarusian institutions for mentally and physically challenged children and young adults. We aim to be, and we think we are, the most open and transparent charity in Ireland. We publish audited accounts, and every year, we invite anyone taking part in our campaign to view for themselves what we do with funds raised. Our work is visible. We encourage questions about what we have funded in the past and what we hope to fund in the future. We also encourage engagement with Belarusian people at all levels in society including local government officials, young adults that have grown up with mental and physical limitations, Institute Directors, government ministry officials and Belarusian volunteer organizations who work with our hospice and de-institutionalization programmes.
What we have achieved in recent years…
2009 In January, following extensive negotiations with Belarus’s Ministry of Social Protection and an Irish sister charity, a project which has been five years in the making was finally launched. It is a house, located in Rechitca, a large town in south Belarus. The house will be home to 8-10 young disabled people who have been institutionalized all their lives. Here, they will learn how to cook, clean, buy groceries and manage their lives like their able-bodied peers. Also, we have arranged for educational and training programmes and initiatives to integrate the young people into the local community. The goal of the project is quite simple. It is about preparing the young adults to live independently. We have planning underway with a German NGO to help us achieve this starting in 2010.
2008 – Building of seven greenhouses with some financial support from ESB’s ElectricAID. These greenhouses are part of a training programme in horticulture for young adults with disabilities. They also provide safe food for the institution in which the young people live. Irish students helped build the greenhouses in June 2008. They also built disabled access pathways in the same institution.
Funding of United Nations Development Programme Belarus
Funding of Hospice Programme
2007 – Vasilevka Institution. Location: just outside Chernobyl radiation zone. Vasilevka is home to young adults (17-27) with mental and physical challenges. We completely rebuilt a block of apartments to make them wheelchair accessible. We installed special bathrooms, furniture, heating and beds. We built disabled access pathways around a recreation area, installed flower-beds and laid the foundations for a patio area (to be completed in 2009). We have funded a unique innovation in the lives of young adults in state care. Some of the young people who live in Vasilevka began training in horticulture and hair-dressing outside the institution. This programme was started in 2007 with increased numbers of people in training and more training options.
We have continued to fund the Hospice programme based in Gomel, the biggest city adjacent to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. This programme allows nurses and counseling staff to deliver palliative care in villages and communities across the areas most affected by Chernobyl. We pay salary, drugs and transport costs.
We made a €10,000 donation to UNDP Belarus to support special initiatives designed to help communities that have been affected by Chernobyl to create sustainable recovery efforts.
2006 – We began a programme of teaching and learning based on the delivery of 12 computers to Vasilevka together with some peripheral devices. Many of the young adults here have had no educational opportunities and the computers, which are supplied by Dublin Institute of Technology's (DIT) Digital Community, are central to creating a 21st century learning environment. We fund the salary of teachers, occupational workers and a project manager Inna Basaranovich who coordinates activities in Vasilevka and satellite institutions. The programme was conceived and brought to fruition by Professor Tommy Cooke, DIT’s Head of Community Links and his staff. This programme is their first overseas operation.
