You are probably already aware that our nominated charity for this our 50th Anniversary year is the ‘Victims of Chernobyl Children’s Fund’. This is a local charity that aims not only to provide relief aid to the victims of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Belarus but also brings a number of affected children to Caldicot for a month’s respite in the summer.
The 1986 nuclear explosion in Chernobyl sent a cloud of radioactive dust all over northern Europe but over 90% was deposited just across the Dniepr river into the populated marshes of Belarus. Ironically the power station site is now judged to be safe to visit! Later generations of thousands of innocent children in the region are suffering the effects of the radiation and for the past 25 years the charity has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds to help the victims and their families. The charity recently contributed to raise support to help new born baby Marek to have an urgent heart switch operation. This is unavailable in Belarus and the baby had to be flown to Germany for this life saving operation. £30,000 was needed and thankfully mother Marina and baby Marek are doing well. This operation is common and free in this country.
To help raise awareness and hopefully some much needed funds for this deserving local charity, the Choir is holding an OPEN EVENING on 4th April at 7-00pm at the Choir Hall in Mill Lane, Caldicot. For directions, move onto the CONTACTS tab at the top of the page and click on FIND US on the drop down menu . You will be very welcome. We will run through some of the items to be sung at our Annual Concert on April 13th and show you how some of our amazing music is put together. Entry is free but there will be a Bucket collection. A bar will be available during the interval and afterwards.
In addition the Choir’s Cycle Club (Côr Meibion Caldicot Cycle Club) is holding a sponsored Cycle Ride from Brecon to Caldicot in July (Belarus 1600) and we want to raise awareness of this as well and get more sponsors. To date, we have over 50 riders who have pledged their support with the intention of raising at least £5000 to fund the visit of six children and their interpreter to Caldicot for a month and we hope you will support them. Details are on our Cycle Club website. Just click on the yellow diamond badge at the top right of this page.
We do hope you will come to our OPEN EVENING – and give us and the Victims of Chernobyl your support.