LIFE IN BELARUS

BELARUS is a beautiful country with vast areas of forest and many lakes and rivers, but since the accident at Chernobyl in 1986, almost a quarter of the land has been contaminated.
In the first months after the disaster over 100,000 people were evacuated from a 30 km zone around the plant. And then later, when it was realised that large parts of the South and East of the country were contaminated, a further 400,000 people were evacuated. People were moved from their small wooden houses in little villages where their families had lived for generations, to high rise blocks in the cities. For the parents it was very hard to find jobs; children were ostracised at school; and for grandparents it was hardest of all to adapt to such a different life.
‘I remember speaking to one old lady in Minsk, the capital city’ says the project's National Co-ordinator Linda Walker, ‘who had tears streaming down her cheeks, as she spoke about how she missed the forest, the wildlife and her little home’.
It was also a great wrench to leave the family graves behind. It is customary in Belarus to continue to live near to where your parents and grandparents are buried, to visit the graveyard often and even to have picnics on the graves. Now, people who lived in areas which are highly contaminated, known as the ‘Purple Zone’ are only allowed back on one day of the year, the ‘Day of the Dead’.
Those people who have continued to live in villages which are slightly less contaminated receive a small allowance which is supposed to help them to buy ‘clean’ food. This is sometimes referred to as the ‘Coffin Allowance’. But there is seldom any food available for them other than that which is grown locally. Most families will have a little plot of land, maybe with their home, maybe a few miles away. When the parents are not at work, they will spend much of their time tending their vegetable plots. Even if they know the soil is not safe, they have no option but to use this food for their children because they cannot afford anything else.
Salaries are very low, especially in the country areas. A teacher or a doctor in a small town will earn about £50 a month. People who are unskilled and work on a collective farm, or as a carer or factory worker, may earn only half this amount. Prices for food are very much lower than they are here, but they are going up all the time and families really struggle to feed and clothe their children.
Many women have two jobs to try to make ends meet, plus looking after the vegetable patch and doing virtually all the child care and housework. Very few families have a washing machine or vacuum cleaner and there are no convenience foods and no microwaves to pop them into. In many village homes there is no hot water, and in some no water at all. This means trips to the well to fetch all the water they need, and having to break the ice in the winter. Very few families have a car so they have to rely on erratic public transport to get about.
“Women will often say ‘I’m quite an old lady now. I am 50’ says Linda “As that is my age too, I think it’s quite young! But if my life had been as hard as theirs, I would feel old too.”
Alcoholism is a problem in all the post Soviet countries. Life is hard, people are very anxious about the future, and vodka is very cheap. It is more often the men who become very heavy drinkers and this makes life for their wives even more difficult.
In most households there are grandparents sharing the home. Houses or flats are small and bedrooms are a luxury. ‘I have sat on a sofa in the living room having tea with a family’ says Linda’ and asked if I could see the children’s bedroom. The parents will laugh and say ‘You are sitting on Sasha’s bed, this is Sergei’s bed and over there is the sofa where we sleep”.
When children grow up and want to get married there are very few flats available and many young people have to share a home with their parents for their first few years.
Yet, despite having so little, Belarussian people are remarkably generous and hospitable. They will share with a visitor whatever they have and more, often borrowing form neighbours in order to provide a beautiful spread of food which they cannot afford. When a Belarussian family invite a visitor for a cup of tea they invariably will provide a small feast.
For families with a sick or disabled child, life is hardest of all. When a child has cancer he will have to spend months having treatment in Minsk and this means that the mother will have to stay with him and leave behind other children in the care of their father and a grandmother. The family get an allowance from the government to help with their sick child, but still they have financial worries to add to the anxiety of not knowing whether the treatment will be successful.
There is some stigma attached to a child falling ill with cancer, but this is very much worse when a child is born with a physical or mental disability.
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