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

kirstiestenhouse@hotmail.com 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

[robert.pattison@o2.co.uk] 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

greyheron@blueyonder.co.uk 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.