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Our 2007 convoy to Belarus

At Easter 2007 we were again invited by the charity Chernobyl 2000 to take part in their aid convoy to Belarus. This time Mrs Fardon, Mr Taylor and I took six pupils from Year 8.
We raised cash to help Chernobyl 2000 to fund the convoy and also to buy art and craft supplies for our partner school in the town of Uzda.
We also collected over 4000 toiletries for an orphanage and the Uzda hospital.
We were delighted to have Ashton Junior Church and all five churches in the area working with us this year to provide art and craft materials and collect toiletries.
Another splendid new avenue opened up as one of our Comenius partners (Het Hoge school in Holland) joined us by raising 500 euros to help buy aid and also by serving us breakfast as we met up with them at motorway services in Holland. Next year our German partner may join in, too.

The convoy set off from school on Thursday at 4.00 pm and travelled through the night to reach a posh German truck-stop near Berlin on Friday afternoon. The swimming pool there, a good meal and an early night set us up for driving through the night again to reach the Polish/Belarus border at 5.00am on Sunday. There then followed a 15 hour wait whilst paperwork was questioned. Eventually we arrived in Uzda. Although it was after midnight, we were treated to a warm reception and a feast. Our staff met friends from last year and made some new ones.
Our pupils stayed with Belarus families whilst our staff stayed with theirs. All of us were warmly looked after and got a good insight into Belarus life.
In our partner school it was really gratifying to see pupils using the equipment we had taken last year.
They put on a birthday celebration for Peter with cake and traditional Belarus ear-pulling.
We helped in some lessons and the Belarus pupils had worked very hard to put on several concerts for us.
Whilst we were at the school, Mr Taylor and other members of the convoy were busy delivering aid around the area.
This year we were able to visit one of the orphanages in the area. Other convoy members were delighted to see how the orphanage was smarter, brighter and better decorated after last year’s aid delivery of decorating materials. The orphanage has 122 youngsters, all with learning difficulties. They gave us a concert and were pleased to receive gifts of hats, scarves and sweets.
Next we travelled to the capital city, Minsk. There we explored the city, shopped and rested. The first evening we visited the State Ballet (it cost £4.50p) and the following night we went to the State Circus (£5). The acrobats, clowns, disappearing tricks and other acts were extremely skilful and enjoyable but we were all saddened to watch the performing animals. To see bears shuffling about performing tricks reinforced my views that a circus is no place for animals.
All too soon we were up early on Saturday morning to drive back. Apart from a punctured tyre (only 3 hours of delay) we sped back, driving through the night, to our truck-stop. There, we swam, ate, slept and set off again for home.
Early on Tuesday morning we arrived back at school to deliver six great pupils back to their folks for much chatting and sleeping.
All our “Belarus 6” behaved impeccably and their helpfulness, fun and smiles were an asset to the convoy. Their behaviour and attitude were praised by everyone. I even had a steward on the freight ferry boat track me down, ask if I was in charge of the pupils and then compliment the school on the way they had conducted themselves. He had been very wary at first after previous bad experiences with other young passengers.

THE FUTURE
1 Chernobyl 2000 is bringing a group of 30 pupils from the Uzda Music and Dance School this August to do six concerts in the area. They may be looking for host families to look after these talented youngsters and I may appeal in our Horizon newsletter. Please also support any concert near you. We have seen the pupils perform twice now and their traditional music and dance are well worth seeing.
2 Next Easter we hope to travel with the convoy again with more aid for the school, orphanage and hospital.
3 In summer 2008 we hope to bring over a group of Belarus pupils from our partner school to have a holiday here. Fundraising has already started for this new venture.

R Wells. April 2007.