Chernobyl Kids Visit The Buckie Pottery Company
THE weather may not have been very summery last week but there were plenty of sunshine smiles on the go when a group of youngsters from Belarus visited Buckie. This, however, was no ordinary trip for the 18-strong group of children aged between seven and 12 – all of them live in areas of the former Soviet state blighted by radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster in 1986. Although the ill-fated power plant is in fact in Ukraine, around 60-70 per cent of the fallout fell on a wide area of sleepy agricultural land in Belarus to the north. To this day, the population there have to deal with the long-term health and economic effects of radioactive contamination in the water, food and even the very air they breathe. As part of their month-long stay in Moray courtesy of the charity Friends of Chernobyl’s Children Moray, the kids will have the chance to live and exercise in a clean environment while seeing some of the sights and having fun at the same time. On Tuesday the itinerary included a visit to Buckie Pottery run by Tania Kucharski. She told the Advertiser: “This is actually my second year working with the children, last year they couldn’t make it to Buckie so I went to them. “I’m delighted they managed down this year. In the morning they each painted a little bowl, which were all different and beautiful, and these were fired and glazed. “After lunch, they all painted a mug each. “They all really applied themselves and enjoyed it, they were very enthusiastic and did a good job. This was something a bit different and something you don’t get to do very often – after all, not everyone has a kiln, I suppose!” Ms Kucharski added that she first became involved with the project thanks to a neighbour who was involved with the Moray branch of the charity. Accompanying the youngsters, along with two interpreters, were Friends of Chernobyl’s Children Moray volunteers Peter Netherton and Elaine White, who along with a number of other families were hosting the Belarussian guests in their homes for the duration of their stay.
See full story in Banffshire Advertiser 18th June 2019