We receive many letters from parents asking the Charity for help for their child. It is impossible for us to help all of them by bringing them to the UK. The Rehabilitation Camp Project will help as we can help more children and also the children who are part of the Family Support Project. The children of the alcoholics greatly need this help and mothers struggling to survive need our help and they can be looked after as a family and all benefit from the excellent care this camp can offer.

In Belarus there are possibly 1.5 million children affected by the contamination. For the children in the villages or the contaminated regions things are not getting better.

The children need constant help. They come to visit us in the UK have good food, fresh air, good fun and show great improvement in their health. Then they go home looking well but over the months back in their villages many, not all, go back to poor health.

As well as bringing some 4,000+ children per year to the UK for recuperative holidays we support children in Belarus by sending 20 per month for a three week stay to Zdhanovichi Rehabilitation Camp, just outside Minsk.

The camp takes 300 children at a time and the standard of this recuperation camp is extremely high. The children are housed in rooms that take 2 beds. Each room is well furnished and has a TV and its own bathroom. The complex is equipped with swimming pool, games room, saunas, disco, theatre and water therapy units. The complex also has a medical unit, a psychiatrist and therapists.

The next block is all classrooms therefore, while the children are at this camp they can continue with their education programme.

To date the Zdhanovichi Director estimates to have had about 38,000-40,000 children stay at the Camp.

For the first two days at the Camp the children all have their own medical checks and are monitored all the time While there the children are educated about how to live off the land and what berries to leave i.e. not eat. Then they are shown what plants not to disturb.

For three weeks the children live in a clean area and eat uncontaminated food which they are shown how to wash properly. They have six meals per day.

The camp is open all year round and, if needed, whole schools and villages can stay at the same time.

There is about 170-200 staff, which is about 1-2 ratio.

There are about ½ million people still living on highly-contaminated soil in Belarus. If the children have a higher level than 2600 Caesium 137 in their body the government will pay for them to stay at the Camp twice a year and if they live in a highly-contaminated area they have to attend camp. The cost per child is about 250 dollars.

In the camp they have a full dental clinic, donated by the Italian government, a lot of treatment is done by having hydro therapy, each one of these spa baths cost 6,000 dollars and they have about 8/10 of these.

They also have doctors working on the psychological side, as a lot of children need support if siblings or parents have died. They want to talk about what will happen to then in the future and whether it will it happen to them. We can’t give them that sort of treatment when they come here but they are getting the best in the camp.

The recuperation centre sounds like a holiday camp with laughter and children playing. Music plays through a tannoy system and all the children looking happy, but they still have their education, so the holiday camp bit goes out of the window.

There is a gym with exercise bikes, rowing machines, and road running equipment and weights to lift and pull, together with a small but deep swimming pool.

The dining room was quite big with all the tables laid out for about 6 people per table. The food is freshly cooked in the camp’s kitchen.

The first two days of life at the camp are the busiest. When their 24 days are up they are all checked over again, tested and they are tested against their first results for improvements. They leave a good 30-40% healthier.

Many children are in need to travel and cannot do so because their parents are either in prison or alcoholic and therefore they do not sign the necessary documents. These are the children that need help and Zhdanovichi is the right place for them to be sent by CCLL. Those who visited the camp from the UK came back very impressed of the high standard and what the camp offers these children. This can only be extended to complete families where the mother is almost at her witts end. This will give the chance for the mother and the family regroup and move forward.

The cost for a child to stay at the rehabilitation camp is $252 US dollars. Anyone wishing to sponsor in this way can nominate their own child.

Below is a letter received from one of the parents: