For twelve years now, fruitful cooperation has been ongoing between the charitable organisation "Houses instead of Chernobyl" (Germany) and the international charitable public association "EcoDom" of the Republic of Belarus, and the Lepel District Executive Committee.
The first stage of the joint work was the construction of houses for displaced persons from the Chernobyl zone in the village of Stary Lepel. Volunteers included residents of Germany and students from Belarusian educational institutions. The original construction technology is of particular interest: long wooden shavings are used in building the walls, and reeds – an environmentally friendly material – are used for roofing. Such houses always maintain an optimal temperature: warm in winter and cool in summer.
In 2005, eight new houses were built in Stary Lepel. Every year, Stary Lepel expanded with several new buildings, and new families from the Chernobyl zone gradually moved in. The village literally flourished before our eyes. Now there are 26 new houses for displaced persons. Young families from the Gomel region have taken a liking to our blue-eyed region. Parents work in urban organisations and enterprises, and children develop their creative abilities at the art school and in various clubs.
To ensure that the villagers' free time is spent in an interesting and informative way, a cultural and educational centre was built on the initiative of representatives of the charitable organisation "Houses instead of Chernobyl". The head of the centre, Lyudmila Supeeva, and her like-minded colleagues, Olga Demko and Svetlana Tukhta, became the authors of an interesting project "The Life of Elderly People in Germany and Belarus". The project won an international grant.
The project programme includes meetings between elderly people from the Lepel region and German specialists. Our compatriots will visit Germany to learn about the living conditions of elderly Germans.
Constant guests in the Lepel region are Edeltraud Schill, Ulrike Jäger, and Hinrich Ruschmeyer. They have extensive life experience and actively support new ideas and useful proposals from local residents. During his latest visit to the Lepel region, 76-year-old Hinrich Ruschmeyer gave a lecture at the cultural and educational centre about the life of elderly people in Germany, accompanied by a slideshow, diagrams, and graphs. Ulrike Jäger has headed a volunteer group from the German city of Bünde for several years. German volunteers, the majority of whom are students, carry out repairs to the homes of lonely elderly people during the summer and learn about their lives.
Svetlana SILVANOVICH