THE Russian invasion of Ukraine has presented new problems for the Burren Chernobyl Project, which has worked to help victims of the Chernobyl disaster.
Spokesperson Liam O’Meara said, “It’s a challenge in several areas. We’ve been working away with the orphanages, a load was sent there at the end of January, it got as far as Lithuania and was held up in a port, which meant we’d be paying more every day it was in the port. We thought it might never get through, but luckily it did.”
Burren Chernobyl Project provides support to Belarus, and there are concerns that the vulnerable there will not get support.
“A friend of mine in Belarus said will we be North Korea? Will we be shunned and people not want to help, will people think differently of the country?”
The war may mean less resources for the orphanages there, he feels.
“They’re just coming out of Covid, they were very much locked down for two years. We were hoping that’d be over and visitors and volunteers going would begin again, but that’s all on hold.
“In terms of funding for orphanages, the funding will be cut because the money will be spent on the war effort and the price of everything has gone up.
“One of the big things we’ve been asked for is more money for seeds, so they can plant them and have food later on in the year.”
He added, “We’re always fundraising and we do three or four container loads per year over the last number of years.
“That’d be all to Belarus, we work in the orphanages, with children and adult orphanages, we work with social service centres, with poor families.
“That’s what we’d be fundraising for, that was the pattern up until now, but everything becomes different now.”
He said that there has been fundraising for people in the Ukraine as well and supplies are being sent out now.
“We’ve had contact with a lady from the North who’s involved with Chernobyl as well and she’s flying out to Poland, to buy as much medical stuff for the people who’ve been injured. We sent her some money, she has contacts in Kyiv and Odessa who are coming up towards the border to collect the stuff.”
Liam himself has been able to provide some support for new arrivals here.
“A woman and child came up last week and I went up with the family who are hosting her in Shannon, because I have a bit of Russian so I could help with the translation and introducing them to one another.”
He is planning to head to Belarus himself soon, bringing some supplies for the disadvantaged there, at a time when getting supplies through is very hard.
In general he feels the orphanages they deal with haven’t declined so far.
“So far so good they’re okay, they haven’t. But with everything gone so expensive they mightn’t be able to keep things up to the standard they are at.
“There isn’t a big decline yet and hopefully there won’t be. They’re used to living kind of simply and put up with things, but at the same time they need facilities and to get into hospitals and things.”
He says there has been great generosity from the Clare public.
“We are very grateful to people, once we say we need a family or need a bit of money it just flows in. We always have an iDonate page open and people send in money. People are amazing, they are great.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.