Living with Chernobyl • A happy holiday in Belarus • 2005 summer holiday
20th anniversary campaign • Chernobyl aftermath • Foster care training • In memory of Brian Boothman
Mayflower Centre • Supporting families

‘LOVELY group of children! Excellent interpreter! Most enjoyable Summer yet!’ were the happy verdicts of many of our groups when we met up at the Airport at the end of the holiday in August. Many of the children came on a special charter flight into Birmingham – many thanks to everyone at the airport who made this possible - the others on the new weekly Belavia flights to Manchester, or to Gatwick.

Our Mid Essex group has brought children from the Terekhovka Centre in the South East of Belarus for the last 8 years. Like many of the groups they are lucky enough to have a host family with a swimming pool.

New groups hosting this Summer were Bromley - who shared their children with Craven in Yorkshire, each group hosting the children for a fortnight – and Southend-on-Sea. The children spent part of their holiday in the Grosvenor Hotel, just five minutes from the beach, as well as enjoying a stay in the homes of local families.

Endon again hosted teenagers from the children’s cancer charity ‘Children in Trouble’ who shared their time between the host families and Cicely Haughton School at Wetley Rocks. (pictured left) Aberystwyth and West Pennine groups also invited children in remission from cancer and a diabetic group came to Buxton & Longnor.

Rugby invited teenage girls from Gomel and very successfully integrated a deaf girl with mild learning difficulties into the group. Liverpool have also happily hosted a group including children with mild physical disabilities.

Solihull’s teenagers came from the orphanage at Svetlagorsk,. They were all in their final year, and experiencing their first holiday abroad, as a boost before going to technical college. They stayed together at   Springfield House School, whilst a group of younger village children stayed with families

And the oldest group of visitors came to Carmarthen (right) where the Queen Elizabeth Cambria School have hosted 18 and 19 year olds for the last six years. Jean Williams, Deputy Head and organiser of the visit, and the Head Teacher, Allan Evans have both retired this year, but the school hopes to go on hosting young people in remission from cancer.

Leeds and Craven invited their children through the Hospice in Minsk, some of them siblings of very ill children and some children from poor families in a remote village. Llandinam, Catterick and Gloucester host children from village schools in Gomel Region. Monk Fryston in Yorkshire invite children from Uvaravichi school every Summer. The boys in this year’s group are seen here proudly posing with a quad bike.

Every year we bring several groups of young children in remission with their mothers. There is an ever increasing number of babies and toddlers being diagnosed with cancer so we would like to encourage even more groups to take these mums and kids, when the children are well enough for a holiday but much too young to come alone. Evesham shared their group once again with Crewe and Alsager, and groups also stayed in Glossop and Teesdale. A further group of four year olds is due to come to a new group in Sleaford for Christmas, and spend the New Year in Longnor.

A recent report by the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA), in conjunction with the World Health Organisation and the United Nations, has suggested that children do not need to go abroad for recuperative holidays. As you will see from the letter which was published in The Guardian, we believe that this report is not impartial and not scientifically sound. A holiday which provides four weeks of fresh air, good food, new experiences and happy memories, provides a much needed boost for children, whether they have had cancer or simply live in a contaminated region.

We agree that work within the country is vital, and a great deal of our energies are devoted to working with education and social services to improve the quality of life of children, especially for orphans and children with disabilities. But bringing the children to Britain not only has a positive effect on those children, but helps to raise the profile of all our other projects, and brings support to many of those who are not able to travel.