Back to Belarus for Brian

Newry man Brian Fitzpatrick one of the founding members of WEast Chernobyl is planning a trip back to Belarus at the end of this month and has embarked on a fundraising drive to help make the trip as successful as possible.

Brian was inspired by Eugene Rushe one of the founders of “Friends of the Children of Chernobyl” who hosted children in Newry in the nineties. he was asked to help run a drama workshop at the time with the kids which sparked an interest that continues to this day. A year later he and his family hosted a child and  saw the positive side of doing that from a family perspective.

In 1998 Brian and several others went out for two weeks with Eugene and the team. “I found the two weeks away daunting, it was a strange country, a strange culture.” Brian stated “Living at the orphanage was key, accommodation was really basic, sleeping bag on the floor -  but you saw things, and then you saw what was being achieved. It was like DIY SOS, you feel whaoh when you were leaving … and that’s what brought me back!”

In 2006 Eugene retired and Brian was approached to form a new group. WEast Chernobyl was formed in 2008 in Newry and volunteers from the group went out to Puchavichi Adult institute in Belarus from 2009 to 2011. In 2012 they sent volunteers to an orphanage in Minsk and in 2013 they visited the Kosava Adult Institute in the Brest region of Belarus and this is where Brian will return to in 2017.

Already the group has carried out maintenance and renovations, brought essential supplies as well as involving the residents of the institutes in social projects including sports, drama and art as well as taking people on day trips to places like the zoo or McDonalds.

Things are changing slowly in Belarus in that young people coming from university are more likely to do volunteering and the group have now got five volunteers there which is a complete God-send. With a high ratio of patient to staff at Kosava, volunteers will be extremely useful in addressing the lack of a permanent presence of the group in Belarus.

WEast Chernobyl would like to develop more mental health programmes, make more use of the arts facilities already there, develop drama, dance, music, photography and also expand sports offerings there. They plan to compile patient files with details like where they are from, and what their interests are, supplement that with life skills and enable them to develop what is there already. They would also like to bring staff from Kosava over here and show them the facilities and work practices here.

Fundraising though is a major factor with WEast hoping to bring their Belarusian volunteers over to train them in first aid and train them in basic crafts, so they can go down on a regular basis and keep a presence there.

Brian is hoping that the well known generosity of Newry people will shine through and he has embarked on a campaign to raise a minimum of £5000 a year with a Pub Quiz in the pipeline in Newry for the last Saturday in January.

He is also doing a weekly walk every Sunday starting at Cornamucklagh House (Daveys), Omeath at 11am SHARP and walking the scenic route back to Newry, roughly a two hour walk. All are welcome to join him, just make sure you get a lift down and if you can raise some funds or make a donation to the charity it would go a long way towards making a lot of peoples lives that little bit better.

Kosava

Kosava is set out in the countryside and caters for over 400 adults of various disabilities and abilities and includes a compound for prisoners who have suffered mental health in prison.

The facility has an art room with one art/ craft teacher. One year they were decorating the Art room and Brian took seashells over from home. “They were redecorating the art room with a marine theme, which is funny for Belarus because it’s land-locked so now on the wall on plaster are seashells from Greenore, Cranfield and Newcastle”

One of the residents fedar is a published poet and Brian would love to be able to set up something to help keep his creative side going.

Brian is Belarus bound on the 31st of January and plans to stay at Kosava from the 31st January to the 3rd February and return home on the 5th February. “I haven’t been out for two years so I want to see whats been ongoing, take photographs, and then plan for the future and come back and start major fundraising”