HotSpring World helping the Children of Chernobyl - Every day made better.

This year saw the 30^th anniversary of the shocking events at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the former Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union. The fire and explosion in the reactor was finally brought under control and a melt-down averted only by the heroic actions of many local men and women. In the aftermath of the disaster, many people had to move away from their homes causing much distress.

Many children in the local area of Ukraine and Belarus have since suffered from effects of the radiation that was released into the environment. To help these children, a UK registered charity, Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline, was setup in 1991 by Victor Mizzi OBE & MBE.

Bringing the children to the UK for recuperative holidays

The charity has since then formed over 80 local groups, known as links, within the UK, all raising awareness and money to support the children of Belarus and Ukraine. Many of these children suffer from various ailments related to the disaster.

The aim of Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline is simply to help them by boosting their immune systems and making a real difference to their health and resolve in life whilst also providing a break from their usual routine.

On-going support for the young in Belarus and Ukraine

These admirable objectives are being achieved by bringing many of these children to the UK each year for a special four week long recuperative health holiday. So far the charity has brought over 46,000 children over to stay with host families in the UK.

The children of Ukraine and Belarus are further supported with on-going supplies of vitamins and other healthcare products and equipment including chemotherapy medicines, all provided in their home countries.

HotSpring World supporting Nottingham link of Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline

The local Nottingham link of Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline is supported by HotSpring World who originally became involved after meeting its chairman, Ian Harra, who has since become a customer!

This partnership started with fundraising events such as Pamper weekends and Christmas Raffles.

HotSpring World Nottingham’s Penny then took the next step and hosted a little boy back in 2013; she has not looked back since.

Now, two groups of 12-14 and 6-7 children are hosted every year by local families, allied with the Nottingham link of the charity, for a month. The kids get taken on lots of fun days out, they are also taken shopping and generally pampered!

Penny says that the children often arrive with less than she would take for a weekend away, they are often from very underprivileged backgrounds.

She goes on to say…

“We hit the shops and buy top to bottom, the looks on their faces when they realise that the clothes, shoes and little gifts are for them! However I have found that much of the time they are so proud of their new clothes they don’t use many of them but keep them to take home. It really is very humbling.”

“We now have a number of HotSpring customers involved, some hosting, some helping with activities and we always have a hot tub party for them just before they leave. This is funded by HotSpring World and the children leave with goodie bags. We have lots of fresh fruit and sweets and cocktails, they love it. We usually have lots of people coming up asking questions and spending time with the kids while they’re here as well.”

Penny hopes to visit Ukraine in the New Year to catch up with the children again and to see how they are getting on.

HotSpring World’s motto is Every day made better – For the children of Chernobyl we have done everything we can to make this more than just words.