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The History of the Pinxton and East Derbyshire Link
Child victims of the worlds worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl have been visiting the East Derbyshire area since 1994/5, when a young boy named Ilya came to stay in Pinxton as part of a convalescing holiday organised by what was then a new charity called the Chernobyl Children Life Line.
The charity was in the process of establishing itself in neighbouring Nottinghamshire with the help from villages along the Derbyshire border, and Ilya had come as part of their group. There was obviously great interest in both this young Belarussian boy and the aims of this new charity. Little had been known of the horrors caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster or the amount of suffering caused by its aftermath, in fact many people had never heard of Belarus let alone where it was or any of its problems.
It was not long before the media started to talk and with the help of the press information started to become available. Following this, a keen interest and a desire to help these unfortunate youngsters gained momentum with a group of families in Pinxton deciding to host children from Belarus, resulting in the first small group of children arriving in 1996. As a result of this enthusiasm and a visit from Victor Mizzi, the charities founder and chairman, it was decided to create a new Link to cover the East Derbyshire region.
Obviously, to start with no funds was a great challenge, but thanks to the support of local people and organisations the Link began to develop. During the first year the small new Link worked very hard to raise awareness and build funds, such was the dedication that all the host families paid the airfare for their visiting children allowing funds for the future to accumulate. It wasn’t long, and again thanks to the press, before the Link started to grow and word soon spread around the area and by 1998/9 the Link was in the process of organising groups of 12 or more visitors to the East Derbyshire area. In recent years thanks to the love, care, time and commitment of the host families the numbers of both hosts and visiting children have gradually increased with recent years having 19 visitors invited to our area.
Over the years the visiting children may have come from all over Belarus and from all walks of life, but they all have one thing in common, and that is that they all needed, and have benefited from the convalescing holidays afforded by the host families and greatly supported by our local community.
Recently we have discovered a poor school in a town called Osipovichy in the Mogilev Region. This school with over 1000 pupils had received no help and had no groups of children visiting England, so in an effort to address some of their problems the Link has committed itself to supporting the great numbers of unfortunate children and their families associated with this school in the hope of improving their health, education and social well being. Recent reports from school tell us of our Links success in achieving its aims, and also the gratitude of the school and the parents for all the love and great care given.