We have been speaking with the Trustees at Chernobyl Children’s lifeline about potential visits by the children they support to the UK during 2021.
We think we can all see that ongoing covid could well be a determining factor, and indeed they confirm the UK and Belarus need to be essentially clear. No-one would want to bring over already health compromised vulnerable children if there is any risk. Add into this the increasing civil unrest following the Belarusian presidential elections and you can see there is substantial doubt over the visits to the UK next year. We are devastated for the children who didn’t come this year and worried about those who may not be able to visit next year.
The process of getting the children visas is very lengthy. Normally the process of getting children over begins each January, so you can see there is time pressure here too. We wish it was better news. The CCL Trustees meet in December and we may know more then.
We have this year’s collection in safe storage and should visits to children in Belarus take place next year, we propose trying to get these blankets out to them. But every blanket made for this project will go to these children.
Lovely folk have been contacting us about this project and we think our advice would be to wait, we may know more in December. It might be tempting to crack on, but a Chernobyl project blanket is both expensive and time consuming, so please do wait.
As soon as we know anything more we’ll be back.
All love G&G x
