By Clark Gillies
When the World Cup draw was made, as soon as Scotland were paired with Belarus, it brought with it, a whole host of political and logistical issues surrounding the game, mainly that the away match would not be in Belarus but played in Hungary behind closed doors with no fans in attendance.
We never let COVID stop us at the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal, and we certainly were not going to let this one get away either.
After spending months researching possible options and talking with people from Belarus, we were delighted to find a charity actually based here in Scotland (who do work in Belarus) called, Friends of Chernobyl’s Children West Lothian (FOCC West Lothian).
Set up in 2010, Friends of Chernobyl’s Children West Lothian is an independent charity that uses every penny which they raise, to directly improve the health, living conditions and social outlook of deprived children from Belarus whose lives have been directly affected by the disaster.
From 2010 until 2020, each year they were bringing groups of Belarusian children (typically aged from 7 to 12 years old) away from the contaminated environment in their own country to Scotland, but unfortunately these visits are temporarily on hold due to COVID initially and now the situation in neighbouring Ukraine.
The visits provided “a month of love and care” for each child during their time in Scotland, that allowed them to detoxify their immune systems, to give them a break from their often desperate domestic conditions and to allow FOCC to provide any further support with health problems (normally through dental and optical checks, but also any further medical help if required).
Since then, FOCC has continued to provide food parcels to children and their families living in remote villages located around the Polesie State Radioecological exclusion zones, and as these children live in poverty, often shut off from the outside world, they find themselves having to eat fruit and vegetables cultivated from land exposed to high levels of radiation.
Upon news of the donation, Kenny Turnbull of Friends of Chernobyl’s Children West Lothian stressed how indebted they are to the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal and how the £5,000 will allow his organisation to continue to help Belarusian children despite the current political situation.
While Chernobyl is located near the city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, over 70% of the radioactive fallout from the disaster in 1986 landed across the nearby border with Belarus, which saw approximately 23% of Belarussian territory contaminated, affecting over 400 towns and villages, and impacting the lives of approximately 400,000 people living in the radioactive fallout zone.
40 years after the catastrophic events of that day and there are still ongoing health problems across the country, including a rise in cancer (mainly Leukaemia and Thyroid Cancer), birth defects, respiratory diseases and widespread immunity issues.
With the Tartan Army unable to attend the game, it was agreed to do the presentation in Scotland, and we are extremely grateful to West of Scotland Tartan Army (WESTA), a long-time supporter of the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal, for letting us host the presentation at their match day screening of the game at the Rhoderick Dhu Pub on Waterloo Street next to Glasgow Central.
After an introduction from TASA Chairman Neil Forbes, the floor was handed to Kenny from FOCC, who went into detail as to what kind of difference this donation will make.
He explained that the children over in Belarus live in remote villages, most of them in houses with no running water, with outside toilets, and explained how they are eating food that they’ve grown themselves in the ground there, ground which has become contaminated since Chernobyl.
He expanded upon how life is very hard for them out there, and only gets worse as we approach winter time where the temperature goes down to -30, but they still go about their daily business, go to school, etc.
As Kenny would put it:
“There are all sorts of issues out there to do with poverty, to do with what they eat, to do with nutrition. The radiation affects their immune systems and increases their risk of cancers. We take these children away from these areas and over to Scotland for a month a year to detoxify their immune system. We really just give them a more positive, happy outlook on life”.
The visits provided “a month of love and care” for each child during their time in Scotland, that allowed them to detoxify their immune systems, to give them a break from their often desperate domestic conditions and to allow FOCC to provide any further support with health problems (normally through dental and optical checks, but also any further medical help if required).
Kenny went on to explain that some, if not all of the donation, will be used by Christmas, with the remainder as soon as it is humanly possible thereafter to provide food parcels and Christmas presents to the children of Belarus.
By the time the cheque was handed over, there was probably not a dry eye in the pub, and it can be assured that this really was a presentation where every penny would make a massive difference for people who feel they are shut off from the outside world.
All of us here applaud the hard and extremely challenging work that Friends of Chernobyl’s Children West Lothian puts in, and were delighted that they were our 108th consecutive donation, and allowed us continue making a donation at every game without any interruption.
#EverywhereWeGo
Charity Website: https://www.foccwestlothian.com/
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