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Removed
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This charity was removed from the register on 21 Jan 2020
Public benefits
Our public benefits are to improve the living conditions, mental health and wellbeing of adults and children living in Orphanages and Adult Institutes in Belarus. To reduce their isolation and enable them to integrate society by addressing prejudice surrounding disability. Weast Chernobyl does this by training the institute and orphanages care
workers around delivering a range of arts, sports and storytelling and a team of local and Irish volunteers deliver a life skills programme to the service users, as well as refurbish some of the living areas. These benefits are evidenced through an improvement on the access to the living areas for patients especially bed bound patients and staff supporting the patients, facilitating their access to communal areas and sleeping quarters. By improving living conditions and access around the institute we minimise the potential for accidents and injuries for patients and staff and encourage less dependency from staff and patients to be more autonomous. There’s been an improvement on patients’ personal hygiene routine and sense of wellbeing, preventing illness, since the bathrooms have been adapted to access a lot easier for wheelchair users. Through the life skills programme patients’ confidence and ability to cook and look after themselves has improved. The arts, sports and leisure programmes help to develop mental health and wellbeing by reducing isolation, making connections with others and giving patients a sense of achievement. The beneficiaries are the patients and staff from the institute in Belarus, voluntary knitters in Ireland who knit garments for the patients and the various businesses and organisations that donate materials to the charity as it is helping them to avoid waste and dumping unwanted equipment in landfill sites. Other beneficiaries are the volunteers from Belarus and Ireland that work in the institute throughout the year as they share their skills, develop new skills and learn new things. The purpose of our charity may lead to emotional and physical harm of the volunteers as they experience a different reality and way of life and different care provision for vulnerable adults within an institutional setting. This is however minimised by adequate training, advice and vetting procedures for all those considering going to Belarus. The benefits to the volunteers in terms of learning new skills or utilising existing skills and experiences, developing their own confidence and facilitation skills, learning about other cultures, etc, outweighs the potential harm. There is no private benefit flowing from our purpose.
... [more] [less]What your organisation does
The group works within a selected adult institute or orphanage or both in the country of Belarus. At the moment our project is at Kosava Adult Institute that as 480 adult patients over the age of 18 but with a huge wide range of physical and mental disabilities or both! The group fund raises to spend two weeks every September living and working in
Kosava so that our volunteers can see what institutional life is truly like! In co-operation with the Director of Kosava we are involved in a building/renovation work at the bed bound patient unit that involves tiling, plumbing, joinery, electrical and decorating! WE are also involved in a new life skills programme for specific patients that needs a lot of new equipment! We are also involved in various mental projects using arts and crafts along with building up a library of patient personal stories and history! We also co-operate with local knitting groups here in Northern Ireland to bring out necessary winter knitted wear! We are planning to build a new outdoor five a side football pitch and increase games equipment for winter indoor activities. Our long term plans our te building of half way apartments for specific patients to allow possible integration into the larger community. Our photography project has only begun but we want to be able to get the patients to take phjotographs all year round to get a better idea of institutional life! Once a year or when we have the necessary funds and material we will send out a lorry of humanitarian aid to Kosava! We encourage our volunteers where possible to take a winter trip to Kosava to experience the harsh and tough winter conditions that limit the patients to being indoors a lot!
... [more] [less]The charity’s classifications
- The prevention or relief of poverty
- The advancement of health or the saving of lives
- The relief of those in need by reason of youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage
Who the charity helps
- Children (5-13 year olds)
- Learning disabilities
- Mental health
- Older people
- Overseas/developing countries
- Volunteers
How the charity works
- Arts
- General charitable purposes
- Overseas aid/famine relief
Charitable purposes
The relief of poverty, sickness and distress in the country of Belarus which has been affected by the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 by the provision of humanitarian aid with the object of improving conditions of life.