‘The first child we ever hosted is now a human rights lawyer in Switzerland’
THE Chernobyl accident was a power station accident and I had spent my working life in a power station,” Michael says. “I was a shift charge engineer — basically generating electricity — at Ballylumford Power Station and that inspired me to help these kids.
“I remember watching the Gerry Kelly Show in 1996 and they featured the charity and I got in touch. My wife Anne-Marie and our sons were all behind the idea. The kids just fitted in with the family from day one and the family got to know and like the children. We have hosted over 60 children.
“The first child we ever hosted was a young boy called Sasha. He was eight years old when he came here. He did not have health issues. He was from a very deprived area of Belarus. He is now a human rights lawyer in Switzerland.
“When a host parent brings a child here for the first time, there is a very special bond between them and a lot of the time the host parents bring the child back as a returnee. They have to do that at their own expense, but they do. It’s a bond that lasts for a lifetime.”
Michael says that his visits to Belarus were a shock to the system and
knows that for a lot of the children coming to Northern Ireland, it is the first time they will have seen the sea, mountains or even an indoor toilet.
He says that some of the children who are brought over get help from medical professionals here. He says some of the children who have stayed with his family have passed away in the years since.
“We can’t really bring children over who have very serious health issues,” he says. “But we would bring children over here to have very specific operations to do with their eyes or their limbs. We have had seven or eight medical cases where we have brought children over to the Children’s Hospital in Belfast.
“And we have also brought doctors from Number One Hospital in Minsk to Belfast for training. That’s all done through the charity.
“There have been quite a lot of children who have come to stay with us who have passed away from cancer and other ailments at a very young age.
“There was a young boy from Ukraine and three weeks after returning from his holiday here he was dead. He had a congenital heart defect and it just stopped working. He was 10 years old. But there is the other side of it too, where a lot of the children we brought over are now coming back over as interpreters.”
Michael says that hosting children is a very rewarding experience.
“I get a great sense of humanity, helping those who cannot help themselves,” he says. “And who are suffering through no fault of their own. I would recommend it to others who want to help also. It is a very rewarding experience.”