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Autumn
Convoy - 2002 |
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| Our autumn trip
was going to be quite heavy going this
year because we had a vast load of
humanitarian aid which had amassed over
the year to transport and two individual
convoys running in succession.
Our first priority
was to organise the transportation of
the aid. Again we had calculated that
shipping a container to Lithuania was by
far the most economical way, but we
still had to sort, pack, weigh, value
and list every item going. |
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A large
amount of Medical equipment had
been donated by The Royal Surrey
Hospital as well as all of the
toiletries, toys and nappies etc
which had been sent in from all
across the country. |
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| The Rev
Andrew Goode of the Llanrumney
Community Church allowed us to
use the hall to do the
processing and as many "bodies"
as possible were roped in to
assist. |
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The container,
provided by Charles Gee Shipping
Company, was to collect the aid on 23rd
August and we had just 3 hours to load
it.
Although, after seeing the aid stacked,
we thought we would never succeed within
the allotted time limit; so many people
(young and old alike) offered their
help, the job was done in just over 2
hours. |
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| 5.30am on Monday
26th August and the first team of
volunteers were gathering ready to leave
for the 1500 mile drive to Minsk.
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This team
included 6 girls from Llanrumney
High School's Peer Education
Group. The girls run a drug
education programme supervised
by Youth Development Worker,
Maria Forster, and through
workshops, drama sketches and
leaflets provide information
regarding the dangers of drugs
to children in the school. They
had all worked very hard in
their preparations for the trip.
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| As well
as fundraising, we asked them to
plan the colour schemes and
murals for 5 of the wards at
Borovliani Hospital that needed
decorating. Apart from the
initial guidance of plan to
stimulate children, they were
given a completely free hand and
other than knowing what colour
paint to buy, we had no idea of
what they had planned. The
results were staggering!
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| The whole team
pulled together, worked so incredibly
hard and in 3 short days produced what
to me, seemed like the impossible. 5
rooms were completely transformed from
dull, depressing wards into places of
colour and animation. |
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| The girls
displayed such maturity throughout the
whole trip, never once complaining of
cramped conditions during the convoy,
nor of the very basic accommodation at
the hostel. They were very moved by the
abandoned babies in Borovliani and
overwhelmed with a mixture of emotion
whenever we visited the children in
Novinki |
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| They were
also bursting with pride when
they saw the portacabin Music
room, as many of them had been
involved in creating the
matryoshkas that decorate the
outside of it. |
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Because
they wanted to see their newly
decorated rooms finished off
with pretty curtains they held a
fundraiser in the hostel one
night. They persuaded one of the
men to allow them to shave his
chest at so much per go - they
raised well over $140!
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| It was sad saying
goodbye to them, they had been a joy to
spend time with and I was hugely proud
of each and every one of them. But we
had only a few days to recover before
the next team, which included 3 boys
from the Kingstanding in Birmingham
Youth Inclusion Project, arrived. This
group was led out by Lynda Williams and
was, again, expected to redecorate 5
wards of the Children's wing of
Borovliani Hospital.
As always, the team
was taken straight to Novinki before
getting a chance to settle into the
hostel after the long drive. We were
waiting there to greet them and it was
for the first time that I truly realized
the importance of the bonding period
during the discomfort of the journey
over. Here was a team and we were not
part of that team. It obviously didn't
take long for us to become part of them,
but the initial impact was quite
startling.
There were the
natural tears and shock from the
newcomers mixed with the joy of the
children's reactions to visitors, but
everybody coped. |
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| Their
first day in Borovliani was a
delightful surprise for them as
not only did they see the
fabulous work done by the first
team, but they saw children in
the wards enjoying the new
surroundings. This seemed to
spur the team on to reach the
same goal, and achieve it they
did! The able-bodied patients
helped where they could and new
friendships were formed. |
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The same
concern was shown in the
abandoned baby unit and the same
distress mixed with pleasure was
displayed at the Novinki disco
as with the previous teams. But
they also showed the same sense
of pride in what they had
achieved and again, I was hugely
proud to be part of a team that
so clearly supported one
another. I know now that the
team reaction will be the same
for every trip we take out and
it is a privilege for me to head
such a project. |
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| It had
been my intention to travel back
with the second convoy but the
inevitable problems arose
regarding our cargo of aid. The
Lithuanian shipping agent
decided he was going to
apparently invent various
problems with our inventory.
Belarusian Customs Officers
surprisingly assured us that
what we had done was sufficient,
but the Lithuanians refused to
send the container. |
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| Our stay was
extended by a further two weeks whilst
the endless phone calls and emails were
sent back and forth in an attempt to
sort the problems out. |
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Eventually the container did
arrive and in less than 4 hours
we had been to the Customs
Offices to get clearance and
off-loaded all of the
humanitarian aid.
We knew that it would be some
weeks before everything could be
issued, but it was now in the
safe hands of staff that we knew
we could trust to allocate
appropriately and ensure there
was no pilfering. |
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My sincere thanks
for the success of these convoys goes
to:
Ludmila Tagay and Margaret Bamford (for
their eternal support), Peggy Murphy and
Jim O'Donovan (who stayed with me
throughout the entire trip) and the four
of them for suffering my increasingly
bad temper. |
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Team A:
The girls - Yasmin Browne, Jessica
Cryer, Clare Davies, Charmaine Evans,
Charlene Forster and Rebecca Kinson.
The volunteers - Ceri Davis,
Maria Forster, Kenton Friedl, John Gauci,
Andrew Goode, Paulette Hanscombe,
Anthony Rankmore and Susan Rankmore.
Team B:
The boys - Daniel Davies, Anthony Gough
and Blane Watton.
The volunteers - David Alison, Susan
Allender, Matthew Dudley, Lynda Rosser,
Bernard Stacey, Mark Unitt and Lynda
Williams.
Dr Anna Victorovna
Levitskaya and the staff of Borovliani
Hospital.
The Royal Surrey Hospital. Llanrumney
Community Church. Cllr Gill Bird, and to
all who have supported us with donations
of any kind. |
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