BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

13 April 2005

Sadness at death of Sheila Rogers

One of the North West's most revered and respected charity workers, Sheila Rogers, has passed away at the age of 57.

Sheila founded the charity Chernobyl Children's Aid after the nuclear disaster which took place 19 years ago this month. She worked tirelessly for 12 years to raise funds for orphans of the disaster.

Sheila was born in Carndonagh and as a former official with trade union SIPTU, she used her contacts within the union to raise funds for the orphans of Chernobyl.

In the 10 years since SIPTU's National Women's committee has been involved, over 40 thousand Euro has been raised and over 2,000 orphans have travelled to the North West.

Despite the harrowing conditions and her own personal battle with cancer, Sheila and colleague Dominic Bradley regularly travelled to areas worst affected by the fallout.

They visited hospitals and orphanages to identify those most in need of humanitarian aid.

Sheila fought many battles with the authoritarian regime in Belarus in a campaign to secure the best possible conditions for the Chernobyl children.

Belarus, close to the border with Ukraine, was especially affected by the nuclear accident, which affected around 7 million people around the world.

Thyroid cancer, leukaemia and birth defects soared after the accident, which released 500 times the fallout of wartime atomic bombs.

Belarus has been ruled with an increasingly iron fist by President Aleksandr Lukashenko since 1994. His repressive policies have led to US sanctions and the EU has imposed travel restrictions on a number of senior officials.

In 2004, Russia accused Lukashenko of pursuing policies detrimental to economic development and leading Belarus into deeper international isolation. In early 2005, Belarus was listed by the USA as Europe's only remaining outpost of tyranny.

Last November the dictatorial president issued a decree banning children from travelling to Ireland, fearing they could contract 'dangerous western ideas'.

After legal battles and constant campaigning from Chernobyl Children's Aid North West, the government relented and the children will be allowed to visit Ireland later this year. This was perhaps Sheila's final and greatest victory.

The untimely passing of one of the north West's finest charity workers has been met with great sadness in all the countries she touched.

However, her memory and achievements will last for many years to come.

Source:

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northwest_weekly/story.jsp?story=629065