What We Do

Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre

Project Background

Zhytkovichy district is located on the western extreme of Gomel region in Southern Belarus. This district is a poor agricultural area comprising more than 146 villages with Zhytkovichy town at its hub. Part of the district is still contaminated with fall-out from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986 and like many other districts around Belarus suffers numerous and complex associated problems. The population of the Zhytkovichy district stands at 49,000.

The Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre as the primary provider of social and community services in the Zhytkovichy region was unable to deliver the full range of services to its target group of approximately 17,000 because of its inadequate premises. The building, which had been allocated in 2000 to the Day Care Centre by the Regional Executive Committee, the seat of local government, was ill-equipped for its specific purposes. By assisting with the upgrading and reconfiguration of these premises the Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre would have been in a position to provide a better quality service to the people of the regions with whom it deals.

In response CCPI fostered a long term relationship with Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre and agreed to completely renovate the centre to enable it to fully serve the people who need its services so desperately. The Chernobyl Children’s Project International under the stewardship of Mr Duncan Stewart undertook a full building survey in April 2003. Following this survey Mr Stewart, a well-known environmentalist and architect, oversaw and developed a new design for the building and agreed to act as design and architectural consultant to the Project.

Over the course of two years, comprising eleven weeks of arduous work on behalf of CCPI building crews, the derelict roofless building in the midst of a poverty stricken area has been renovated. Chernobyl Children’s Project International and the Irish Ambassador to Moscow Justin Harmon representing the Department of Foreign Affairs officially opened Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre in Belarus along with General Manager of corporate sponsors Pfizer Ireland on Tuesday 17 May 2005.

The centre now completed to a high standard is capable of offering a range of services such as:  

• Temporary shelter for homeless / abused children incorporating sleeping accommodation for 10 children, stimulation facilities, counselling facilities, interaction with elderly, workshops, community rooms, gym / physiotherapy room, toilet / shower facilities including wheelchair accessibility, laundry and dedicated minder room. 
• Day Care facilities for physically disabled children to enable families to work and thus prevent institutionalisation of children. 
  Horticultural garden.

Click to view images of the Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre April 2003-May 2005.

Long-term Relationships

The renovations of Vesnovo Children’s Mental Asylum and Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre are very important projects in terms of self-sustainability and support of the family unit. Both building projects are a testament to the dedication and professionalism of each and every volunteer who has worked on them.

These projects form part of the ongoing developing relationships between the Zhytkovichy Day Care Centre, Director of Vesnovo and Chernobyl Children’s Project International. An agreement of mutual cooperation will see CCPI providing ongoing and varying types of assistance including training of specialist staff such as teachers, nurses, carers and psychologists. CCPI has given a commitment to make funds available where it deems such expenditure appropriate thus maintaining the sustainability of the project. To ensure the building is being utilised for the purpose for which it was renovated and that all children are receiving appropriate care CCPI provides a monitoring system. This system dispatches Irish volunteers to Belarus on a monthly basis to monitor each organisations progress. We work in close cooperation with both directors to provide the “Hands Up” approach that is part its philosophy.