Students, parents and teachers to heal the wounds of Chernobyl

Civil society and local authorities > Belarus

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How do you deal with the consequences of such a disaster as Chernobyl after so many years? In a town in Belarus, some students, teachers and parents have joined eff orts and refurbished a school. In other villages, people have equipped their kindergarten, or opened a music school, or restored drinking water wells. This is how a joint EU-UNDP Programme – funded to minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl accident – is bringing local communities and administrations together to heal the suff ering and to improve the quality of life.

Text by ITAR TASS/ENPI Info Centre Photos by ITAR TASS/UNDP

Minsk – Refurbishing a school; equipping a rehabilitation centre for children with special needs; providing games and physiotherapeutic support to a kindergarten: in a word, healing a suff ering territory through community-based small scale projects, mainly addressing children and youth needs. This is the overall aim of a EU-UNDP joint project, launched in August 2010 to the tune of €2.2 million to minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl accident in the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

Bringing together communities and local administrationsThe project took off in August 2010 and was due to be completed by the end of 2010. Sixty diff erent initiatives are being implemented within the project frame-work. Their overall purpose is to improve people’s life and to rehabilitate a territory which has suff ered enormously from the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. What is peculiar about the project, is that individual initiatives are being suggested by local authorities and residents proper. “The idea behind this project,” explains Andrey Pinigin, the project manager, “is to improve quality of life through a specifi c interaction between local communities and administrative bodies. Together, common people and authorities are identifying and addressing the most urgent social and economic problems of a particular region.”

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ENPI Info Centre – Feature no. 36This is a series of features on projects funded by the EU’s Regional Programme, prepared by journalists and photographers on the ground or the ENPI Info Centre. © 2010 ENPI Info Centre / EU

And thanks to the project, some of theses problems find an immediate solution. “The idea of a dynamic interaction between communities and administrations is quite new,” continues Pinigin, “and that is why one of the most important elements of our initiative is the organisation of training sessions and workshops for all programme participants. We hope that the interaction model we are establishing could in future spread throughout Belarus.” But there is more to this project than community participation, says Pinigin: “The condition for including each initiative into the project was equal financial participa-tion of the Belarusian side.” Local administrations, communities and international donors have thus joined their efforts in support of something that is more than just a selection of initiatives, but a vision of local development. The project has been of-ficially endorsed by the Government of Belarus, which has put in charge the Ministry for Emergency Situations. Other partners are the Gomel Executive Committee, as well as executive committees of four administrative districts in Gomel region – Buda-Koshelev, Vetka, Zhitkovichi and Hoiniki, where the project operates.

School is our home!Out of the 60 initiatives submitted under the project, many have already been im-plemented. In the farming town of Krivsk a music school has been opened; an anti flash-flood dam has been built in Zapesochiye; in five villages of Buda-Kosheleb, 27 drinking water wells have been restored, while in Velikiye Nemki the secondary school has changed beyond recognition as a result of a fundamental overhaul. In September 2010, three projects were completed in the same region: after major refurbishing a school was opened in Pyhan, a kindergarten in Vetka and the Centre for Correctional-Developmental Training and Rehabilitation for children with special needs was inaugurated in the town of Hoiniki. Thanks to the financial support re-ceived, Vetka kindergarten has been provided with game sets aimed at helping chil-dren improve their skills, as well as up-to-date physiotherapeutic equipment. Rooms were also refurbished, for a total disbursement of €22,600 from the EU and UN, while Belarusian partners matched the funding. Now teachers at the kindergarten are able to put in place a comprehensive system for physical development and rehabilitation, using traditional and non-traditional physical exercise and herbal therapy. As for the school in Pyhan, the project’s authors called their initiative “School is Our Home!”. Here, the students themselves, their parents and teachers – 50 volunteers all together – managed to raise the funds to match the international support. For the first time in 20 years, and thanks to the building skills acquired by the volunteers, the school was refurbished, opening its door to enthusiastic pupils who could proudly sit in rooms they themselves had helped to restore. Finally, the 300 kids with special needs living in Hoiniki region will benefit immensely

from the new equipment acquired through the project by the Centre for Correctional-Developmental Training and Rehabilitation for chil-dren with special needs of Hoiniki town. Recently, the children from the Centre have won prizes in re-gional and national arts festivals, in-cluding a ballet festival called “The Autumn Express”.

ENPI Info Centre – Feature no. 36p. 2Students, parents and teachers to heal the wounds of Chernobyl

“What has been achieved here thanks to the joint efforts of parents and teachers, as well as local, national and international organizations, is impressive: it is a celebration of life”

“Together, common people and authorities are identifying and addressing the most urgent social and economic problems of a particular region”

N The opening of the wells after renovation.

Jumping on a trampoline to celebrate lifeCompleting all three projects at once has been a big event for the local communi-ties. Adults and children have celebrated their accomplishment through a number of fairs, concerts, theatre performances and competitions. In Hoiniki on inauguration day, guests visiting the Rehabilitation Centre ended up jumping on the trampoline

with the children… “These funds are invested into our future: our kids.” This is what Jean-Eric Holzapfel, Chargé d’aff aires for the Euro-pean Union in Belarus, had to say about this project. “What has been achieved here thanks to the joint eff orts of parents and teach-ers, as well as local, national and international organizations, is im-pressive: it is a celebration of life.”

ENPI Info Centre – Feature no. 36 p. 3

N Young patients and staff of the Centre for Correctional-Developmental Training in Hoiniki.

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Participating countriesBelarus (Minsk, Mogilev and Gomel districts)

Timeframe2009-2010

Budget€1,504,259

ObjectiveThe project aims to enhance the livelihoods of rural residents in the Chernobyl-aff ected areas of Belarus. This is done through the promotion of participatory community development approach, meaning that the planned output of the project is a working model of interaction and cooperation between the rural residents, the local authorities and other organizations and institutions. Find out moreProject fi che http://undp.by/en/undp/db/ac732319d40cdfd9.htmlProject results http://undp.by/en/undp/doc/ee6418705ce01.html

Specifi c socio-economic problems in the Chernobyl-aff ected areas of Belarus are addressed through a participatory community development approach. Projects are selected thanks to a dynamic interaction between local communities and administrations. International EU and UN funding are being matched by an equal participation of the Belarus side.

Area Based Development of the Chernobyl-Aff ected Areas of Belarus

http://undp.by/en/undp/db/ac732319d40cdfd9.html

“These funds are invested into our future: our kids”

Students, parents and teachers to heal the wounds of Chernobyl