BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/08/2007

Children from Belarus are having a ball

STAFF at the Jolly Roger adventure play area organised a fun send off for visitors from eastern Europe.

The children from Belarus were brought over to the town for a holiday by the Swindon Chernobyl Children's Lifeline charity.

John Bolton, owner of Jolly Roger, was more than happy to help the deprived youngsters.

A retained firefighter, John also arranged for the youngsters to have a look around Swindon's fire station.

He said: "The children had a great time. It was really, really good.

"They had the play party which they really enjoyed because they haven't got anything like that over there."

The visitors have been able to use the Jolly Roger free of charge for the entire length of their visit but John wanted to give them a final party.

After bouncing around the play area the 19 youngsters, who came over on July 20 and will return home on Friday, enjoyed a visit to the Drove Road fire station.

John said: "It's their last week so we threw them the party. After that we went to the fire station and took them through the smoke chamber, which is a building that represents a house.

"We showed them what it would be like full of smoke and used a thermal imaging camera which showed them how we can see people.

"After that they used the hoses on the firefighters so they got a little bit wet but they had a really good time and they had a ride in a fire engine."

About 70 per cent of the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster in neighbouring Ukraine settled in Belarus where more than 3,500 settlements, including 27 towns, and more than 2 million people were exposed to contamination.

It is now 20 years since the accident and the true effects on the gene pool are of concern to health experts.

Doctors estimate that children from Belarus can increase their life expectancy by two years by visiting Britain for one month.

The fresh air and uncontaminated food and water has such a dramatic effect on their depleted immune systems.

While visiting this country the children have been able to experience activities such as ice skating, swimming, horse riding and visits to the Cotswold Wildlife Park among other things.

Another group will be coming to Swindon in December.

The Chernobyl Children's Lifeline is a national charity committed to offering the gift of hope to children affected by the world's worst nuclear power disaster.

To make a donation to Chernobyl Children's Lifeline or for information on becoming a host visit www. swindon.ccll. org.uk.

Anyone interested in becoming a retained fire fighter should contact their local fire station or call 0193 401 200.

Source:

http://www.thisisswindon.co.uk/display.var.1617149.0.children_from_belarus_are_having_a_ball.php