Our Stories - Leaves of Hope for Belarussion Children

Emms Story – August Convoy 2005

Remember 5 years ago when Val first suggested that a portacabin, refurbished by youngsters from the Llanrumney Youth Inclusion Project, should be transported overland from Cardiff to Belarus? We all thought she had taken leave of her senses. When she followed that by saying she was going to drive overland with a group of the youngsters we knew she had! But she argued ‘it was only fair that having put so much into it the youngsters should be encouraged to see it through; to make sure the portacabin was safely installed, and to see the children from the orphanage using it as a music room’. It was an ambitious project fraught with risk but they did it. Val was absolutely right. Earlier editions of our ‘latest news’ tells it as it was.


Leaving Llanrumney on its long journey to Minsk	Arriving at Novinki Orphanage

It was an astonishing success. These were tough young men, used to the world of the inner city, having to fight for survival. They knew what it was like to feel rejected and alienated. On the fringes of the criminal justice system they know about family disruption and fractured relationships; they had learned to cope with disapproval and hostility.

All set up and ready for use

But they were not prepared for the orphanage and the effect it would have them. They were clearly very moved by the children whose needs were palpably so much greater than their own; children who craved so much affection and attention. They were distressed and, in the security of Val’s understanding and love, they wept. They returned to Cardiff with a real sense of achievement and a sense of self respect that would have been hard to imagine ten days previously.

Since then, of course, Val and a team of wonderful volunteers have driven overland with groups of youngsters – girls and boys - every year to work on refurbishment programmes moving from Novinki Orphanage, to the children’s ward of Borovliani hospital and then the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre close by. Each time it is the same. The youngsters quickly form friendships with the children, and work their socks off to redecorate designated areas. Val’s moving accounts of the trips on this web site are a joy to read and it is absolutely clear what a wonderful success the trips have been for everyone – especially the young people.

This year drivers were needed so I volunteered ……
I was intrigued. The young people, this time a mixed group of boys and girls, volunteer to spend three days in a mini bus being driven 1,500 miles in order to work hard for eight hours a day and then to drive back another 1,500 miles confined for another three days, eating in lay byes at the side of the road, and sleeping as and when they could make themselves sufficiently comfortable! And if this wasn’t enough they had to raise £400 each for the privilege. Why did they want to do it? What possible motive had they? What on earth was in it for them? How do they cope living in such close proximity to each other.

Breakfast on the move….

… .and lunch

Everyone does their bit

How would they cope with someone who was so demonstrably not from ‘their world’; not from Cardiff, or even from Wales, an obvious establishment figure, in her early sixties who didn’t smoke, knew nothing about the latest reality TV nail biters, and whose last intimate contact with pop music was the Beatles. ….I was to learn a lot in the next ten days.


No explanations needed here!......

The very public exposure of my deficiencies endowed a sort of ‘street cred’. At the same time there was considerable revelling in my embarrassment, reinforcing the misery, with helpful comments like, “Cor Miss! D’you really not know the ‘effing’ difference between ‘effing’ benzene and ‘effing diesel?” But they decamped, uncomplainingly into the other two vehicles, and set off to find a motel for what remained of the night leaving me with a saintly volunteer to wait for the breakdown truck. It arrived at 2.30 am. Communication could have been a problem but as Benzene and Diesel are universal words (“to most people” I suppose should be the caveat!) the trouble was fairly obvious. The mini bus was duly winched on to the break down truck and delivered into the darkness of the Polish country side to wait for a local village garage to open in the morning. That was OK except that the breakdown chap wanted to be paid, and US dollars weren’t good enough. Being then driven even deeper into the countryside in the cab of a thirty two foot break down truck in search of a ‘Kantor’ to change US dollars into Zloty was an unlikely tale but I do have a receipt timed at 0335!

The second was the crucial importance of service station stops. Fag ‘fixes’ were dragged to within centimetres of the cork. Quantities of crisps, nuts, pop, sweets and bars of chocolate were horded as if for a siege of monumental proportions, or as very soon became apparent, to be used as ammunition in the resolution of disputes en route.

All this, I suppose, is what Val means by ‘team building’. Relationships were explored, alliances pursued, roles and territory established. We learned to cope with travelling, driving long distances at a time, sleeping when we could, sharing the driving, and doing as we were told by Val!

All of us - on our best behaviour at the border

And when we arrived Belarus experienced some of the worst and most violent storms in its history.

No heat, light or electricity

no water

and yet the work goes on!

Negotiating flooded roads and uprooted trees was nothing compared with the effect of the power failures and the loss of water. Without water and electricity for two days the decorating was definitely a test of endurance. Even the loos did not work so we had to develop a ‘code of practice’, and rota for their maintenance. Some moans and groans would have been understandable but the young people were truly wonderful. The lavatorial jokes are unrepeatable but sustained the spirits. And our little travelling gas cookers were the only cooking facility for the whole orphanage. This was team building like nothing else. There were no complaints – just competition over who could make us laugh most. It brought us all together; gave us all a common cause, and brought us face to face with how very hard life can be in Belarus.

And on ……..

Congratulations from the British Embassy

The Embassy presentations presented a problem. It would not do to meet Her Majesty’s representative stinking!! But mercifully just a couple of hours before we were due to leave the water returned and we were able to luxuriate in the showers and arrive looking (and smelling!) reasonably well polished. The picture shows seven very proud young people having been presented with their certificates of achievement by Charge d’Affaires, Mr Greg Quinn.

And they had so much to be proud about. They had weathered the storms, the lack of water and electricity and had completed the job on time! They had all worked hard. They had also played with the children in the Centre getting to know them and love them. Like their predecessors they had found it a highly emotional time but Val, or another volunteer, was always on hand for the private expressions of distress, frustration and helplessness. I was so impressed by the compassion and and understanding of the experienced volunteers as they gently guided the young people through the rawness of their feelings.

Playing with the children

There is no doubt that the young people who made the return journey were a more mature, knowledgeable and chastened group. They felt better about themselves and probably knew themselves better. They had visited the grave of our ‘little bird’, and had learned about the history of Belarus at the war memorial at Khatyn. They were genuinely proud of what they had achieved and were not afraid to admit it. It was clear that they had become a team. They cared about each other were beginning to make some effort to resolve their internal differences without resorting to cursing or bombing each other with M&Ms (although that is clearly not claiming that referees were not still needed!), and we knew then some of the answers to those questions that had intrigued me at the beginning of the trip.

Until next time……

Khatyn

Farewells …
And then it was time to say goodbye. All the children and staff were up at six in the morning to see us off. They sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in English to one of our volunteers. He had to swallow very hard! There were lots of promises of return trips and letters but, unlike so many emotional partings, we knew we would soon be back. It had been such an extraordinary week. How can one do justice to it? We got back into our vehicles sad but exhilarated. It would be long journey home, but not, we knew, long enough to sort out all the feelings – the fun, the sadness, the frustration, the squabbles, the discipline, the language, the confidences shared, the understanding of things we did not understand before.

Breaking out of the Motel….

We did not speak much at first – but then the camper broke down and we were jolted back to reality. We knew the return trip was going to be no less eventful. Again we took refuge in a Polish motel overnight. This time when we came to leave early in the morning, we found we had been locked in! ‘Breaking out’ was not a problem. The ‘team’ had lots of experience!!! The ambulance breakdown on the autobahn was a bit hairy but eventually we made it back to the Channel and home.

I shall never forget the wonderful volunteers and young people who made up the group. They were truly inspirational. I am so grateful to them, and to Val, without whose drive, vision, courage leadership and strength this would never have been possible.

Thank you everyone.

Margaret Bamford (‘Emms’)