BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

12/12/2007

Irish renovation team set to play Santa for Belarussian orphans

By Allison Bray and Ralph Riegel

MORE than a dozen volunteers will travel to Belarus next month to celebrate Russian Christmas with needy orphans.

Irish Independent Business Editor Tom McEnaney, founder of the International Orphanage Development Programme (IODP), is leading a group of 16 businessmen, civil servants and other professionals who will spend a week renovating four orphanages and building a farm at one of them, while playing Santa Claus to about 1,000 orphans.

The volunteers will down tools briefly on the Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7 and don Santa outfits as they hand out gifts, bought with donations, to the children.

This year's excursion, from January 2 to January 9, marks the 10th year the charity has been improving living conditions for the orphans -- many of whom are victims of abuse and neglect.

So far, the charity has installed six 100-acre farms at 11 orphanages. An exhibition of photographs taken by Jason Clarke, of the work the charity has done to date, opened at the Temple Bar Cultural Centre in Dublin last night as part of the charity's annual Christmas fundraising drive, which runs until December 21.

Meanwhile, Christmas came early for three seriously-ill Belarussian children who arrived in Ireland for life-saving medical treatment yesterday thanks to the Chernobyl Children's Project (CCP).

The trio -- Vladimir, Olya and Kristina -- flew into Cork Airport to a heroes' welcome as the inaugural part of a programme that will see 100 children from the Chernobyl-hit region spend this Christmas in Ireland.

All three children, visibly taken aback by their welcome, will now undergo crucial medical treatment over the festive season.

- Allison Bray and Ralph Riegel

Source:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/irish-renovation-team-set-to-play-santa-for-belarussian-orphans-1244711.html