The East Clare Chernobyl project has enlisted the support of the Naval Service to raise funds in a sponsored cycle from Minsk to Malech in Belarus next month. The cyclists, limited to 15, will be expected to raise some £1,200 each for a new laundry which is badly needed in the children's sanatorium at Malech.
Chief Petty Officer Gabriel Whitson says the bedding and clothing for 170 children is currently hand-washed by local women from the village. A new facility would ease that burden.
Malech is a village in the Brest region of Belarus and its sanatorium is used to care for children from the heavily contaminated areas of the country, scarred by the radiation fall-out from Chernobyl in 1986. Although facilities have improved somewhat since aid workers took the village under their wing, much still remains to be done.
In addition to the two-day cycle on October 9th and 10th, the group will visit some of the institutions with which the East Clare project is involved. Transport, food and accommodation have all been arranged in Belarus.