Tyne valley Link
Newsletter –June 2008
Welcome to our new monthly newsletter which we hope will be beneficial to all, may we once again take this opportunity to introduce the committee:
Caroline Cornwell Chair
Nigel Roddam Vice Chair
Alan Bright Treasurer
Mike Domingue Secretary
Steven Short Web and IT Co-ordinator
Dorothy Fiederowicz Transport Co-ordinator
Barbara Buzzard Supplies Co-ordinator
Roxanne Cornwell/Charni Cornwell Activities Co-coordinators
Fundraising
What a hectic month we’ve had, all credit to Dorothy and Glynnis and everybody else who participated, the meal at the Station Hotel was a roaring success with a combined total raised being in excess of £800.
The bag pack at Asda was very tiring but well worth it and it raised over £600, we have put our request in for another date closer to Christmas.
Future fundraising events include a pub quiz, a walk (coastal route) and possibly a ball or extravaganza meal, so please watch out for more information and get involved.
There is still time and places available if you wish to get involved in any of the activities or driving duties.
The last two months have been extremely stressful in relation to the new biometric visa’s and CRB checks; however at this stage we have selected and informed the families who have completed the necessary checks.
Unfortunatley some of our host families will not receive their CRB’s in time to host this year and we are actively encouraging these families to participate throughout the month.
We are planning to have a second host family meeting on the 19th of June in the Monastic workshop at Hexham Abbey. At which time the selected families will be given all of the infor mation on their children and what to expect throughout the month.
After many months of extremely hard work backwards and forwards we have now managed to successfully secure the Dental trip, so desperately needed for the girls. With this however there are a few clauses and we must endever to adhere to the requests stated by the Dental Hospital, many thanks go to everyone involved.
We are hoping to have our web page up and running within the very near future and once this is completed please have a browse and feedback any comments.
11th Humanitarian Conference
May 3rd 2008-05-08
Working together for Belarus
I had the pleasure of attending the 11th humanitarian conference held at the Quadrant, Silverlink Wallsend. The conference was chaired by Brenda Dinsdale of 2Cs and the top Table included His Excellency Alexsandre Mikhnevich, His Excellency Christopher Hilton the Deputy Lord Lieutenant representing the Queen, and Councellor Joan Bell representing North Tyneside Council.
The conference tee‚d off with an Address from Councillor Bell to open the conference, this was followed by a reply from the Belarusian Ambassador.
Addresses followed by our Founder Victor Mizzi, the Deputy Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Mr Leonid Chavko, the Deputy Minister for Education Mrs Tatiana Kovalieva, the Deputy Minister for Labour & Social Welfare Mrs Marianna Shchotskina.
The main theme of the conference imparted by the Belarusian delegation was the problems with new legislations that have come into effect that are hampering relief. Increased Security was causing problems with the children obtaining visas; it was highlighted that although the British government had supplied a portable biometric scanner to Belarus, lack of staff to operate it was still causing problems. There has been a downturn in the number of host families this last two years, this was put down to the fact that people are frightened to host children today because of all the bad press around concerning paedophiles, it was highlighted by Victor that it is now not PC to hold a childs hand or give them a reassuring hug if they have had an accident.
It was highlighted also that due to recent changes in the Belarusian customs procedures that it was now more difficult to import aid into Belarus.
Rick Foulsham from hope and homes for children gave a talk on how his charity is trying to close down the 170 childrens homes throughout Belarus, the idea being to have the children in the homes adopted by Belarusian families. This is a slow process as it takes times to find families and to organise new jobs for those people employed by the home.
I had a chat with the Ambassador and
although he was extremely happy with the organisations that are hosting
the children in their countries, he felt that more could be achieved if
the children recuperated in Belarus. He stated that three times as many
children can be recuperated locally for the same cost as for a child
that recuperates in another country.
He also stated that once these children grew up that assistance in training them to have a craft that could sustain themselves and there future children would go a long way into making Belarus a lot less reliant on humanitarian aid, the UK and Eire supplied 10% or all humanitarian aid.
I seems that if the Ambassadors thoughts and Rick Foulsham's charities aims are put to together they may be a way forward.
After the existing children at the children's homes are adopted the homes could be used to recuperate the children (for those homes outside of the contaminated areas), this would negate the time needed to find jobs for the staff at the homes.
Workshops were held to Discuss projects and contracts, UK Visas, The problems facing Belarus today and Sustained development.
The conference was wrapped up early so the Belarusian delegation could get back to London.