A summer of friendship and fun, in Belarus and Britain • Home, sweet home • We need your support!

Foster care programme • Humanitarian aid deliveries • Gomel Children's Hospice

Calendars and Christmas cards • London 10km Road Race • In memory

Home, sweet home

Anton with Sarah Grenfell

Ira and Tanya

Anya

During the last year we have brought several children from Zhuravichi to spend time in Devon and West Wales.
They have developed so dramatically during their stay here, that it is simply not appropriate to let them return to the orphanage.
Our medium term aim is to get many of the children out of Zhuravichi and into a more suitable environment, with the eventual goal of closing down the institution altogether.
The Cloud Nine Rehabilitation Centre at Selmarsh is a step along the road to improving the lives of the children of Zhuravichi. But it may be a couple of years before this is finished as we have to work in conjunction with the Education Department who are currently short of funds.
So we decided to create a small home for just five young children who will be able to live as a family and in July we found a suitable house in Rogachev. This is the ideal location as we are receiving a great deal of support from the Association of Families with Children with Disabilities, from the Social Centre, the Education Department and the Town Council.
KeyMed provided the funds for us to buy and renovate the house. By mid November we hope that it will be ready and a foster mother and four support carers will have been recruited and given some appropriate work experience.
Anton, pictured top right, is blind and when he came from Zhuravichi last year we were told that he had cerebral palsy. He came to Devon initially, and then after a few months at the Rehabilitation Centre in Minsk, Anton returned to Britain to spend six months in Wales with Sarah Grenfell of our Teifi Valley group. His physical inability and much of his autistic type behaviour were due to years of neglect, first by his mother and then at Zhuravichi. He is an active little boy who has many problems because of the emotional damage he has suffered. He needs a lot of love and attention in a stable, secure environment.

Ira is just three years old and has been living in the Home for Abandoned Babies in Gomel. She was born with fingers missing and with severe deformities of the feet and lower legs. She is a very bright child and she has been having a wonderful time in Devon. In the Summer she was accompanied by Tanya, a carer from the Baby Home (centre picture) but since has been staying on her own with Marion Clitheroe. It may be possible in the future to operate on Ira’s legs so she is able to walk, and this would mean that she could then be fostered into a family in Gomel, after a few months in our house.

Anya (right) has cerebral palsy and when she lived at Zhuravichi she did not move and spent most of her time in a cot. Whilst living in Devon with Joan Edwards and her family she has learned to crawl all over the house and to walk in a special frame. She understands a great deal of English and she has been attending nursery school where her happy smile has made her a great hit with the staff.
Anya and Anton have spent the Autumn in the Rehabilitation Centre in Minsk but they will visit Britain again in the future to spend more time with the families who have grown to love them.

Vika, below, is still living at Zhuravichi. She is a possible candidate for living in the house, as is Nazar, pictured on the front page. They both have cerebral palsy.