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TRANSCRIPT
FOCC
Newsletter
April 2011
History of Friends of Chernobyl’s Children
In October 1994 a little Belarussian girl named Karyna came to stay in Lancashire with Olwyn Keogh, the Founder / Director of the Friends of Chernobyl's Children charity. Olwyn and her husband had previously helped survivors of an earthquake disaster in Italy, filling her caravan with essential items, driving there, supporting the work of the aid workers, and leaving the caravan there for a local family to make their home. It was therefore no surprise when the plight of the Belarussian children in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster prompted her into taking what were to be the initial steps in the establishment of FOCC. The impact of that first visit started the charity, and the following year 50 children came from Belarus for a four week recuperative visit to East Lancashire.
Since then the charity has grown nation-wide and today there are 30+ FOCC groups across the country ranging from the New Forest to Edinburgh and Norwich to the Isle of Man. In total, the charity currently arranges for around 650 children visits each year and has helped over 1400 children and their families.
The FOCC GB (Governing Body) was established in 2004/5. Its purpose is to provide central services, support and organisation for the affiliated local groups, and to support the Founder and Director, Olwyn Keogh, in the running and future development of the charity. The Governing Body sets the standards and procedures for the local groups, manages the offices of the charity in Belarus, arranges the transport for the visiting children and is responsible for liaison with the Government and charitable organisations in Belarus. We are particularly fortunate to have close links with this body in the guise of Heidi Grant, who is not only our current Group Co-ordinator, but also a Co-ordinator with FOCC GB.
Our own local group, FOCC
Edinburgh West, was established
in 2006. Diane Mayall (Anya’s Mum)
first became aware of FOCC in
2005 when she saw a poster at her
child’s nursery, and she attended a
talk in Portobello which was hosted
by Olwyn. Inspired by that evening,
she put an article in her childrens
school magazine, and set up the
meeting that brought Olwyn and our
initial families together. After much
planning, organisation and
fundraising, our first visit with 15
children took place in September 2006, and we have hosted ever increasing numbers of
children since then.
In October 2010, we established our second group, the West Lothian Group, which has
successfully completed its first visit of 14 children.
In total, we have hosted 50 different children, arranged for over 140 individual visits, and
raised in the region of £130k to support these activities.
West
Lothian
Group
The inaugural visit of
our West Lothian
group began on
Wednesday 13th
October, 2010, as a
group of 14 boys and
girls, aged between 7
and 9 years old
arrived at Edinburgh
airport. Accompanied
by their interpreters
Inna (whom some of
you will recall visited
us with our West Edinburgh group in Sept ’07) and Katia (who works in our Mogilev Office &
visited us briefly with Olwyn Keogh MBE – the charity Founder and Director - in Sept ’06).
Exhausted, nervous and with a few tears, the children were introduced to their host families
before being taken to their new homes
for the month long visit.
The group used the halls and kitchen at
the back of the Broxburn Parish Church
as their base for drop off / pick up,
school lessons, arts and crafts, concert
preparations and other activities, and
we were fortunate enough to have
acquired the FOCC Minibus to assist
us in our many excursions.
The majority of the children in this
group are from the countryside around
Mogilev where living conditions can be
pretty tough, even when compared to
those of our city children (e.g. none of
the country children have internal loo’s, and water is frequently drawn from village wells).
With most of the children never having travelled far from their villages, the trip to Scotland
was initially a little overwhelming for some, but a wonderful experience for all of them once
they had settled into our normal family life.
Undoubted highlights of the visit were trips to Tumblezone, Edinburgh Castle, Our Dynamic
Earth, the Mary Erskine and Stewart’s Melville Junior School, the Five Sisters Zoo, Bo’ness
& Kinneil Railway, Deep Sea World, a Burns Experience (including haggis) at Balerno
Bowling Club, Ten Pin Bowling and a fantastic visit to West Calder Woodland organised by
the Forestry Commission.
The children also had a great time at
Livingston FC, country dancing, on the
Edinburgh Bus Tour, swimming at the
Broxburn pool, an afternoon of
Manicures & Golfing, a visit by the
Scotmid Smoothie Bike, and a visit
and singalong with Olwyn Keogh MBE.
Their farewell concert was a wonderful
event, and the children enchanted
close to 200 family friends and guests
with their singing and dancing.
All too quickly the month long visit was over and the
children said their farewells to their host families at
Edinburgh Airport on Tuesday 9th November.
Exhausted, confident and with even more tears than
when they arrived, they returned safely to Belarus.
Many thanks to everyone who helped us to organise
and run such a successful and enjoyable visit. Can’t
wait to do it all again starting on 16th September 2011!
Edinburgh West Group
The Edinburgh West Group are looking forward to their next visit which takes place in June
this year, just under seven weeks away!! Gaynor has been busy planning a superb
programme of activities. This year the base for drop offs and collection will be the Scout Hall
opposite St Anne’s Church in the grounds of Barnardos. There will be 16 children this year
and we will be welcoming 5 newcomers:
The Hay/Barr family are hosting Melissa, The Eadie family are hosting Tanya. The Evans
family are hosting Dianna . The Craig family are hosting Vadzim and the Lees family are
hosting Dima. Masha Grant is moving from the autumn group and becoming Masha Smith.
Fundraising
Congratulations
On Sunday 22nd August 2010 someone you haven’t met cycled the Glasgow Skyride for FOCC. Tony
Wales is a Lecturer in Nursing at University of West of Scotland and formerly of the RAF. We have
been working together on various educational initiatives over the last three years and in particular in
the Scottish Clinical Decision Making Group. We had the natural conversations about home life and
the like and when he heard of Nikita and the whole practical philosophy of FOCC he was determined
to help by generating funds. He raised a total of £140 and we have thanked him on behalf of the
group.
Florence Cotton raised £377.69 sponsorship
money by doing the Santa Toddle in Edinburgh
in December, despite having to dig the car out 3
times that morning to get her there!
Big thanks to all who sponsored her.
Linlithgow Gazette and Bo'ness Journal
Lynn and David Cranwell have persuaded, begged and cajoled all 7 of the local schools in
Bo’ness to support fundraising for FOCC with donations, dress down days and discos. Fame
has spread and the above article appeared in the Linlithgow Gazette and Bo’ness Journal –
great publicity! Many of these schools have committed to continued support which is
fabulous.
Clare Cotton has had a similar success with Clifton Hall School with a dress down day and a
variety of other activities they raised the fabulous amount of £352.41.
A very big thank you to everyone who contributed in any way to the success of the Sportsmans Dinner. It was a very enjoyable evening and a great way to raise funds for the charity.
I am sorry to say ladies that we beat the target set from the ladies night fundraiser but I am over the moon to advise that we made a profit of £2480 on the night with a few smaller donations still to come in.
It was great to have 5 host dads as well as myself there. If I can pick a night next year when less people are on holiday it would be good to see more dads and their friends there. It really is a good night and a “fairly easy” way of raising funds.
If anyone is thinking of organising a similar dinner, say in Edinburgh, then I would be very happy to offer advice and help in getting you started.
Once more, a very big thank you to all and especially Bob who assisted me greatly with the legwork in getting things organized beforehand and on the night.
Kenny
A Big Thank You to
All the
Fundraisers!
Video
I have just put a couple of compilation videos of the kids taken during the trip to Belarus 9th
to 16th March, 2011, on YouTube. Not great quality, and I'll probably miss out on an Oscar
this year, but good fun.
Edinburgh West - http://youtu.be/R6tYqlKsGmU (Only 51 days to go)
West Lothian - http://youtu.be/yF-5JWYRmfY (Only 157 days to go)
If you enjoy, please buy an extra few raffle tickets to say thanks!
Ian O. Smith
Future Fundraising
Tricky Ricky Childrens Entertainment Show
Bathgate Regal Theatre Friday 27th May 3-4pm.
Tickets £4 each, available from www.bathgateregal.org.uk
or the Theatre box office on 630085
Tricky Ricky is a great magician and entertainer, the show is suitable from playgroup age upwards probably to p6/7 age and is quite entertaining for
the adults too!
It would be great if you could advertise this as widely as possible - if you contact
[email protected] Kirsty will forward copies of the poster. If we manage to sell all 206 tickets we should raise around £600 as Kirsty’s sisters work
are willing to match the profits.
Concert
There will be a concert by Bathgate Menzies choir in Broxburn Parish
Church on 10th May tickets on sale now £5 to include tea/coffee.
If you need further details e.mail robert pattison
[[email protected]] or phone 07729422152
Coffee Morning
We are holding a fund-raising Coffee Morning
Saturday 30th April, from 10am to 12 noon
at St John's Hall, Manse Road, Torphichen EH48 4LT
Any offers of baking gratefully received; bring along on the
day or hand in to Mark and Eleanor the day before.
If you haven't been to St John's Hall before, please note it's not next to the Kirk, but off Westfield Road (B8047), with limited parking immediately outside (7 spaces, including 2 disabled), but it's fine to park in Westfield Road. Don't worry if baking isn't your forte, just come along on the day and enjoy the fine fare and company! Mark and Eleanor Sterrick 2 Balmuir Avenue, Bathgate, EH48 4BW 01506 651185
Sponsorship
I am planning to run the Ignis Asset Management
Women's 10k in Glasgow on 8 May 2011. I have set
up a Just Giving page at
http://www.justgiving.com/Gillian-McLean
Thank you
On May 15th I am taking part in the North Berwick Novice Triathlon which involves a 250m
swim (10 lengths of a pool), 6 mile cycle and a 2.5 mile run to raise funds for FOCC.
I took part in this event last year and would like to improve on my time (no promises
though!) with the added incentive of sponsorship.
If you feel you would like to sponsor me, I have set up a page on JustGiving.com
http://www.justgiving.com/Ruth-Lee1 where donations can be made online.
Thanks for your help.
Ruth
A Personal View
Last autumn, our family played host to a very special guest: an 8-year-old boy called Nikita. Nikita is
from a village in Belorussia near to the border with the Ukraine. Almost 25 years ago, the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Station exploded, releasing 190 tons of highly reactive nuclear waste into the
atmosphere. Because of the wind direction on the day of the accident, the majority of the fallout
was directed over the area where Nikita now lives, contaminating land and people. Since the
disaster, there has been an increase of 800% in the incidence of cancers in children living near the
reactor plus a dramatic rise in the rate of children born with physical disabilities.
The Friends of Chernobyl’s Children (FOCC) is a charity that brings children like Nikita to the UK for
what they call ‘a month of love and care’ providing the children with clean fresh air, uncontaminated
food and medical checks. The children stay with host families who provide a friendly, stable
environment and loving care. During weekdays, the children take part in fun activities and outings
as well as learning English and continuing their own schoolwork. This care helps to boost the
children’s immune systems and enables them to enjoy a healthier and longer life.
Although I was obviously aware of the Chernobyl disaster and had a vague idea of how it had
affected the health of people living in its vicinity, I didn’t know about the work that FOCC does until
just before Christmas 2009 when they were fundraising by bag packing at Sainsbury’s in Linlithgow.
Nine months later, I was waiting nervously at Edinburgh Airport for our young guest to arrive. The
visit did not get off to the best of starts, with Nikita sobbing silently as we drove back to Polmont
along the M9 and then being violently car sick on the way to the opticians in Livingston the next
morning – I didn’t think my driving was THAT bad! However, apart from a few bouts of
homesickness, a very bad case of toothache and a few communication problems (Nikita spoke no
English and we only had a few basic phrases of Russian) things went surprisingly well. While there
were tears on both sides when he left Scotland a month later, they were of sadness at his leaving.
When they were here, the twelve children who came over had a very packed schedule. Every
weekday morning, they assembled at Broxburn Church Hall where they enjoyed a full programme of
activities and lessons. They also went on excursions to places like Edinburgh Castle and the Five
Sisters Zoo as well as going swimming at Broxburn pool and on trips to the local park. Most of the
trips were subsidised, either fully or partly, by the organisations concerned, all thanks to one of the
charity’s committee members known for his ability to ‘blag’. At the end of their visit, the children
invited representatives of these organisations to a concert of singing and dancing, including Scottish
Country dancing, which they had been learning. Weekends were busy too, as we wanted to
introduce Nikita to friends and family and to show him Scotland. One memorable day we took him
to Portobello Beach in Edinburgh to see the sea for the very first time.
Gillian MacLean
…..and finally!!!
Apologies to anyone whose fund raising I have missed, please update me at
[email protected] and I will include it next time.
Thanks to everyone for all their efforts, they are much appreciated as the smiling faces in all
of the attached photos show.