Belarus tot Ballyseedy for Christmas
ONE Kerry family is living the real spirit of Christmas this year as they open their home to a beautiful little Belarusian girl abandoned at birth to an orphanage.
And in the process they are making history within the Chernobyl Children International charity as the second and third generation of their family to host a child from the disaster-struck zone.
30 years after the Chernobyl catastrophe and the fallout continues to exact an horrific price on the people of Belarus and the Ukraine. 10-year-old Angelina Harokhava embodies its worst effects.
Abandoned by her parents at birth due to defects likely caused by the long-term effects of radiation on her parents, she is confined to a wheelchair and requires round-the-clock care as she cannot feed herself or perform simple tasks most other children take for granted.
But she is at least lucky enough to have found herself in an orphanage sponsored by Chernobyl Children International in Vesnova. The Little angel has been melting the hearts of so many Irish volunteers with the charity in recent years, among them Ian and Susan Sugrue of Tralee.
Ian and Susan were so captivated by Angelina they decided on giving her the ultimate Christmas present this year. The couple’s daughters Ciara and Roisin meanwhile can’t meet to wait their new friend - not least Roisin who recently had 12 inches of her beautiful locks shorn for the charity in one very generous fundraiser.
Angelina jets into the country on Wednesday, December 21, next, as the youngest of a group of 40 Belarusian children spending Christmas with Irish host families.
In staying with the Sugrues, she’s helping mark one long-standing involvement with the charity within the family. Ian’s father George and his wife Mary have been involved with Adi Roche’s charity from the beginning, filling and driving countless convoys of trucks out to Belarus over the years and setting up the Dental Programme for Children in Belarus with Tralee-based dentist Marcas Mac Domhnaill. Through this programme the couple have helped provide hundreds of children with vital dental care.
CCI voluntary CEO Adi Roche paid glowing tribute to the whole family this week days ahead of Angelina’s arrival: “We see this as a very special and inspiring moment in the story of County Kerry’s deep involvement with the children of Chernobyl, much of which is down to the commitment and dedication of the Sugrue family. The love and the commitment shown by the Sugrue family is, this Christmas, being handed down to yet another generation. It is wonderful to think that the generosity of the Sugrue family, in reaching out to the Chernobyl’s victim many years ago, will continue in a very powerful way this Christmas.”