BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

28/04/2008

Couple brings goods and hope to Belarus

Rotary banquet crowd learn about country's deep poverty

By Peter Epp

When David and Margaret Campbell of Ridgetown make one of their frequent trips to Belarus, the people of Chausy liken their arrival to a circus.

And, indeed, the Campbells' retinue must resemble one, for they are accompanied by six large trucks when they visit the rural community of 12,000.

Inside the trucks are boxes upon boxes of clothing, household goods, blankets, garden tools, toiletries, detergent and food - all of it from Canada. The boxes weigh about 65 pounds each, and each has the name of a Chausy family attached to it.

"When we come into town, they say the Canadian circus has arrived," says Margaret Campbell.

Over the course of a year, the Campbells and other members of Canadian Aid for Chernobyl will deliver 750 boxes of goods to the people of rural Belarus. They do it because Belarus is one of the poorest nations in Europe.

The Campbells' mission was described in detail to those who attended the Rotary Club of Dresden's annual banquet last Friday night. David Campbell, a dentist in Ridgetown, has visited Belarus six times over the last four years, while wife Margaret, an employee of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, has visited four times.

They returned from their most recent trip on April 8 and, as in past visits, brought several tons of much-needed material with them.

They explained that Belarus and its people have faced many difficulties over the past century. During the First World War, 25% of the population died. During the Second World War, 66% of Belarus' citizens were killed or starved.

But the past 22 years have been the most difficult. In April 1986, a nuclear plant at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine malfunctioned, and the resultant radioactive cloud drifted northward into Belarus, saturating the people and their land with the atomic poison.

The human toll could have been less had the Soviet authorities given some warning. But they didn't. Instead, in an effort to stop the radioactive cloud's northward drift toward Moscow, the Soviets seeded the clouds over Belarus to cause rainfall - and many Belarussians, astounded by the brilliant red sky laced with atomic particles, ran outside to watch the unnatural spectacle... and stood in the rain.

The Campbells found out about Canadian Aid for Chernobyl in 2004, when Margaret Campbell's church was asked to knit some mittens for the Brockville-based agency. It wasn't long before they made their first trip, and ended up in Chausy, a typical Belarussian rural community.

They were staggered by what they found.

"It's like going back in time," Campbell said.

Chausy's homes are mostly wooden, many of them unpainted, with sagging porches, walls and doors. Residents don't have indoor plumbing, and many don't have electricity. Automobiles are rare; transportation comes from horse-drawn wagons. Many of the town's residents have only one change of clothing.

Campbell said incomes are extremely low, and most residents don't have enough food. The land, which resembles the rich farmland of Chatham-Kent, has the potential to yield great crops, but a lack of seed and equipment has stymied that potential. The region's main crops are flax and winter wheat, with a bit of corn and some potatoes. There are many herds of cattle and some dairy farms, but surprising few pigs.

Campbell noted that farmers tend to spread a lot of potassium on their fields, so the crops absorb the mineral rather than radioactive material. Still, the harvest is time-consuming because there is so little automation. It's not uncommon to see farming tilling with horses.

Despite the region's rampant poverty, Campbell said Canadian Aid for Chernobyl has made progress. Since 1998 when the agency was organized, it has delivered more than $26 million in aid. She said more than 99% of the funds raised on the agency's behalf go directly to those in need. When Campbell and her husband travel to Belarus, they pay for their own travel expenses.

In recent years, the couple has started to focus on an orphanage that operates in Chausy, and they suggested that this facility remains a useful metaphor for some of the challenges that Belarus has, as well as its hope.

Many of the orphanage's children have parents who say they are unable to provide for their offspring. Campbell said it's not uncommon for newborn children to be left behind at the local hospital, because the mother can't afford to bring her child home. The hospital keeps these children for several years before they are sent to the orphanage.

Campbell hinted that many of the families have absent fathers. Alcohol is an enormous problem, and many of them men either drift away or die. That leaves an onerous burden on the women left behind. Campbell said she once met a woman in her 90s, living alone and still chopping wood for her cookstove, and still drawing water from a communal well.

"She told me she wanted to die. She was just too tired to go on."

The Campbells have helped start a program of improvement for the orphanage, providing new beds, clothing, toys and medical equipment. They've also focused on helping the facility become self-sufficient. With the help of a new tractor that was purchased in 2006, with $23,000 from Canadian Aid for Chernobyl, along with a new wagon, front-end loader, discs and other equipment, the orphanage has been able to expand its farm acreage.

This year, it's hoped the facility can harvest eight tons of potatoes, two tons of cabbage and two tons of carrots. Much of the crop is hand-picked by the children.

In recent years, David Campbell has helped introduce a Manitoba variety of white bean, to help augment the children's protein-poor diet. But his next goal is to introduce livestock, so that chickens and pigs can be raised. To this end, a suitable barn has been acquired.

The Campbells want to achieve to objectives with the introduction of livestock. They want to make the children's food source more secure, but they also want the children to learn the responsibility of animal husbandry.

Part of their goal is to make the children employable. Once they reach age 16, the children must leave the orphanage, and studies in Belarus have shown that the vast majority of orphans don't do well as adults. Many end up in jail. Left on their own, 40% are dead within seven years.

To help with the orphanage's practical education, the Campbells have helped located industrial lathes and sewing machines.

Their efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Chausy's orphanage is considered the most successful of 25 similar facilities in that province, and in recent years the Belarussian government has started to invest more money.

But the Campbells say there is much that still needs to be done, in a land that should be prosperous because of its agricultural potential, but remains stunted because of the world's largest known nuclear disaster.

Source:

http://www.northkentleader.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=998576&auth=Peter+Epp

Google