The neglected children of belarus
BMJ 2002; 324 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0206193 (Published 01 June 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;324:0206193
- Alice Shiner, intercalating medical student1,
- Delanjathan Devakumar, fifth year medical student2
- 1University College, London
- 2University of Manchester
In the summer of 2001, a group of eight British medical students joined a party of volunteers to help run a summer camp in Belarus. The camp was for children with mental and physical disabilities. It was organised by a charity that has been working with these disadvantaged children—the Chernobyl Children's Project.
Belarus
Before we became involved with the charity, few of us had heard of Belarus. It is a country with 10 million inhabitants and is a little smaller than Britain. It lies in relative obscurity in the eastern European belt of the former Soviet states, all of which gained independence at the end of the cold war in 1991.
Relatives place photos of loved ones around a monument to victims of the Chernobyl explosion in Ukraine's capital, Kiev.
You need to go back centuries in order to recall a time when Belarus could be regarded as a prosperous state. Since then, invasion by the Poles, two world wars, and the work …
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