A bike ride through radioactive Ukraine to raise money for Eastern Europe’s forgotten orphan children….…
Remember Chernobyl? They call it the ‘Land of the Wolves’ because the people have left and Mother Nature has taken over. The area for 50 miles around the town is uninhabitable and will be for 500 years!
In September Rupert and Maurice will be cycling the 500 miles from Kiev to Minsk in five days including a fast detour through Chernobyl to make us glow a little in the dark. We’ve tried planning overnight stops but information is scarce and the landscape is desolate in places. We might be spending a night or two with the wolves, taking turns to keep the fire going!
Ukraine and Belarus are famous not only for the Chernobyl meltdown but also for the appalling state of their childcare system. You still get grim state orphanages with hundreds of mixed-sex newborns to teens thrown together and raised in gruesome conditions. Children driven to despair by neglect and then consigned to mental institutions, prisons or living on the street when they become adults.
Hope and Homes for Children takes children out of these institutions and treats them like people again – fostering them or forming them into small family units with permanent parents and giving them love, hope and family and a sense of belonging in the world. Personally, we’ve seen orphanages in the East and supporting this small, lean and focussed charity is the best value your money can buy.
We’re paying all our bills. After that … well we’re hoping once again to count on your largesse to sponsor our efforts and help us raise some money for the kids. Can we ask you to dig a bit for Hope and Homes for Children and send us some cash? A little or a little more – whatever you can.
We will match whatever you give us ourselves ( within reason!) so be cruel to us and kind to them !
See http://500milestominsk.typepad.com/weblog/ for links to the charity’s site and some incredible pictures of the area – its like the world after the apocalypse. We’ll also keep you updated on our progress as we ride. We’ll also organise a night out for supporters in Brighton in June - look out for that.
Best Regards,
Maurice and Rupert
Ways to give! Send a cheque to ‘500 miles to Minsk’ to us..or.. return the slip to us and we’ll squeeze the money out of you later..or.. text us on 07768 805350..or..email 500milestominsk@hawksley.co.uk
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I pledge £ ……….. for Maurice and Rupert’s 500 mile radioactive ride to Minsk and do / do not want them near me when they come back.
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