Wednesday 26th April marks the sad anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 in the USSR
Last term, boarders from School House Girls and School House Boys decided to support a charity called Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline Bristol, which was established and registered in 1992 by Victor Mizzi O.B.E. to support the children (and their families) from Belarus and Ukraine forever affected by the world's worst nuclear disaster.
Every year the charity raises the funds to bring up to eighteen children to Bristol each year for four weeks of fresh air, uncontaminated food, fun, love and attention as well as dental and eye check-ups. They come from the town of Osipovichi and surrounding villages, (including Protachavici). Nationally nearly 1,000 children from Belarus and Ukraine will be brought over by the charity’s links.
The charity also supports a school in Protachavici where the children help to grow the vegetables for the canteen and collect scrap metal to sell for learning resources and are funding respite camps in Belarus for the children (and their families) who are too ill to travel. These facilities also have specialist medical resources and nursing.
Some of the organisers are travelling to Belarus in two weeks’ time to visit the children who will be visiting the UK this summer. SHB and SHG managed to raise funds to donate two parachutes. Boarders from SHB and SHG will be having a giant car boot sale during the Garden Party in June in order to raise more money to support the charity.
Amandine Smilevich
Housemistress of SHG and SHB