Press release relating to a song you heard on yesterday's show
Last year two friend's of The Procession, Luke and Katie, got involved in a charity called "Chernobyl Children’s Project", (CCP UK), by way of hosting a recuperative holiday for 2 young girls from Belarus. The girls were just 2 of many children living today in Belarus and the Ukraine whose lives have been affected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. Even after so long since the disaster, babies are now being born with cancer or leukaemia or with genetic disorders.
The charity provides recuperative holidays in the UK for about 300 children from Belarus. For children who cannot come to the UK, they organise a holiday camp in Belarus, delivers convoys of humanitarian aid, purchase urgently needed medicines for the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Minsk, and support the Children’s Hospice Movement. Volunteers from the UK also can go over to Belarus to help out in orphanages’, hospitals, holiday camps, and so on.
Seeing at first hand through Luke and Katie the benefits of this charity, we felt obliged to try and help out, especially as after March 2013 the UK government will start charging £85 for the visas for children coming from Belarus to England for recuperative holidays, even those for five year olds in remission from cancer.
We have a government petition in place regarding the visas. We are desperately trying to raise awareness of this; as if we can get 100,000 people to sign it we will be able to force a government debate on the issue. As well as this we are looking to volunteer ourselves to go over to Belarus to help out, as well as be involved with the children when they come over here. Even just donating an evening to playing football with some of the kids is a big help.
We are also looking to raise funds, specifically for visa's for 2 children to come over again to stay with Luke and Katie, and also for the trip to Belarus for Katie and Ewelina (Martin's girlfriend), and potentially Paul and Martin from the Procession who have Visa applications awaiting approval. Any additional funds will help with the charities existing projects.
In order to raise both funds and awareness, Martin has organised an all day charity gig at Scruffy Murphy's in Birmingham. As well as the great line up including The Procession as well as established tribute and original acts, lots of local companies have donated prizes, so there will be many fund raising activities throughout the day. The Procession will also be releasing a single which will contain information about the petition with any funds raised from sales going to the charity. The Procession will also be getting involved in summer activities in the UK with the kids on recuperative holidays.
Additionally through the presenter Tom Mallow, we are looking to setup a wider awareness project using a charity called "Sky Badger". They help other charities with similar causes, and have some high profile backers. Tom has helped promote the cause with interviews on his radio show with Martin and Luke, as well as with several people involved with Sky Badger, and is looking himself to organise a charity event in August. In addition to this we hope to promote many more events to help the cause.
Key Dates
26th April - Season’s Charity single release to mark 27th anniversary
27th April – All day charity gig at Scruffy Murphy’s to raise funds / awareness
May - Katie visit to Belarus
May - Martin, Paul, Ewelina visit to Belarus
3rd/4th August – Sky Badger Festival, Lutterworth
All August – Belarus Children visit U.K. – Several fun activities to be planned with the kids
7. 31st August – E-Petition Closing Date
Links:
1. Charity: http://www.chernobyl-children.
2. 27th April, Birmingham Gig Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/home.
3. Radio Interview: http://soundcloud.com/
4. Government Petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.
5. Sky Badger: http://www.skybadger.co.uk/
