The volunteers, who journeyed from England, Scotland and Wales, worked harder than ever at the Holiday camp this Summer to ensure that the children of Zhuravichi Children’s Home and Rechitsa Boarding School had a fantastic holliday.
A hundred children with disabilities and their carers travelled across Belarus from the north of Gomel Region to a holiday camp at Neman, near the Polish border. The camp is in a beautiful area with plenty of play areas, woods close by and a river with a sandy beach.
The children took part in drawing and painting, ball games and parachute games, walks in the wood, trips on the river, playing in the sand and endless hours of disco dancing. This year the carers from Zhuravichi were more enthusiastic about the holiday than ever before, joining in with the ‘Hokey - Cokey’ and teaching the volunteers the Belarussian version ‘Boogie - Woogie.’

Their wholehearted participation was a great help to the volunteers, and their enthusiasm really rubbed off on the children. One of the reasons we first organised these holidays seven years ago was to encourage the carers from Zhuravichi to be more active in playing with the children and helping them to try new experiences. Just two years ago, many of the carers would disapprove of the children getting wet or playing with paint in case it spoiled their clothes. It is a delight to see their relaxed attitude and their obvious pleasure at seeing the children having a good time.
Amongst the volunteers were Stacey O’Sullivan and Jamie Burns from Lancasterian School, a lovely Special School in Manchester, where the children, parents and staff have helped to raise funds for Stacey and Jamie’s trip to Neman.
Dozens of boxes and bags of art and craft materials, sports equipment, spare shoes for the children and items to make the volunteers’ lives more comfortable, were sent out to Belarus on our June convoy. Most of this was gathered together by Glenda Tracey, of Littleborough who did a great job in acquiring almost everything for free.

The task of recruiting and co-ordinating the volunteers was organised jointly by Denise Charlton in Blantyre and Helena Walker in Glossop / Aberystwyth. Emily Martin (right) is from Aberystwyth, where she is a member of the Family Support Team. She organised an auction, with band and singers thrown in, and raised £1,000. Some of this was used to buy musical instruments for the holiday and some will be put towards special needs equipment and supporting early intervention work for young disabled children in Belarus.
For the children of Zhuravichi and Rechitsa this holiday is the highlight of their lives and from the moment they get back home they will be excitedly looking forward to next year.

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