Vesnova

The Vesnova Children's Mental Asylum is situated in rural sourthern Belarus.  It is home to 160 children ranging in ages from 4 to 16, who have a wide range of learning and physical disabilities.  When we first visited the institution in early 2002 the children were living in substandard, unhygenic conditions where they were not receiving a proper level of care -- in fact, Vesnova had some of the worst conditions our personnel had ever seen.  This was particularly true in the case of the large number of high dependency children living in Vesnova. The Academy award winning film Chernobyl Heart documents the conditions as of October 2002, and you can see pictures of many of these children in the Images section of this website.

That was then -- today CCPI Irish volunteers have created a new high dependency unit and the work has been carried out throughout the building to improve sleeping and washroom facilities.  We have made a dramatic improvement in sanitation, and the quality of life continues to improve for these children every day.   

Perhaps most importantly, CCPI has trained and pays three nursing staff who work side by side with the current staff.  A team of professionals travels regularly from Ireland to supervise their work and assess current and future needs.  We hope to supplement the nursing staff with other health professionals to allow for a more comprehensive level of care for the children.