We have been working to support families and orphans in Belarus, as a registered charity (Reg. No. 1116762) since 2006, and for several years before that. We are Alan, Carol and Janet, three friends who lost their hearts to the people of Belarus and so set up The Belarus Fund.
Belarus is the country most polluted by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986. Still, the country is being affected by people having poor immune systems, birth defects, dying younger and being weakened by this castatrophe.
The Belarus Fund is a small charity working alongside a Belarusian charity called White Flower which was set up by a wonderful Christian man called Nicolai Balbutski. The Belarus Fund has no overheads and so all the funding goes directly to people who are in great need. Everyone who works for the charity is a volunteer and pays their own expenses - a very committed group of people who get great joy from what they do.
We have been so encouraged to see young Belarusian families coming forward to adopt abandoned children from the orphanages. A young couple came to the Borisov Abandoned Babies Home looking for a little girl to adopt because their own toddler daughter had died of leukaemia. They saw Vanya fell in love with him and adopted him.
As well as adoptions, there are families fostering children. We support a pastor and his wife in Borisov, Belaus who have brought up their own children are now fostering 11, 9 of whom live in their loving home, one is away at college and another is at a residential special school.
There are big needs in this country and as a small charity with no overheads we can ensure every penny raised goes directly to Belarus to support small projects there. For example, providing elderly people who live alone with winter food parcels, new shoes and fresh fruit for children in the Borisov Orphanage care.
Belarus is a beautiful country - radioactivity cannot be seen except its effects on the people there.
