Farewell Party in Greenvale Hotel, May 2006

The Omagh Project girls in their Tyrone jerseys (signed by all the All-Ireland champions) at the Farewell Party in the Greenvale Hotel, Cookstown.

Mikheevka Hurlers

Summer 2008: Two founder members of Mikheevka Village Hurling team practising at St. Peter's Club, Lurgan.

PSNI Day in Castlewellan

Summer 2007: Belarusian Children enjoy the canoeing in Castlewellan Forest Park on their PSNI day. Sviata Golubeva was the interpreter with Craigavon group that year. That's her on far right.

Summer 2007 Farewell Party

Summer 2007: Craigavon Branch Farewell party. Host families and Belarusian visitors.

At St. Peter's GAA Club

Summer 2008: Tanya Senkova from Mogilev in Eastern Belarus is interpreter with the Craigavon group. Here she is pictured at St. Peter's GAA Club in Lurgan with some of the Belarusian visitors and local children.

2001 Belarusian Visitors

Lena Labiuk was interpreter with the Craigavon group during the summer of 2001. Here she is with our guests, Katya Teselskaya and Oksana Ignatieva during a visit to Lurgan fire Station.




Katya at home in Bykhov Region with her pet dog Jak.

Luda Shostak

Luda Shostak is interpreter with the Craigavon group in 2006. She hails from Mazyr in the south of Belarus and is a teacher in Mazyr School No. 14. This is Luda's second visit to Ireland; she was in Omagh last year.

Katya and Luba Rabeshko

Luba Rabeshko (right) as founder of the Belarus based Echo Chernobyl charity visited Ireland during the C.C.A. 2005 summer programme. It was her first holiday in about 15 years. Here she is shown with Katya Bezborodko in Alan and Roisin Boyd's home in Derrytrasna.

Katya Bezborodko in 2005

Interpreter Katya Bezborodko from Minsk stayed with us during the Belarusian children's visit in the summer of 2005. Here she is ladling out the Borshch which she cooked for our Sunday lunch. Pelmeni followed the soup. The food was delicious.
Katya has returned to Ireland in 2006. She is interpreting for the Crossmaglen group and is staying with the Savage family in Cladybegg near Newtownhamilton.

Yulia makes a pot.

Yulia Yarmolchik at pottery class in Pinebank Community Centre, Craigavon in 2002.

Going Home 2001

The interpreter with Lurgan group in 2001 was Elena Labiuk from Minsk. Here she is with Katya and Oksana on the bus to Dublin Airport for the flight home to Belarus.

Home Alona

Alona at home in Bogdanovka village.

2001 Visitors

Oksana Ignatieva (right) with friends in Bykhov Lycee.







Katya Teselskaya meets Joey.

Anna Jatchenko & Yanna Sadchenko

Yanna Sadchenko (left) and Anna Jatchenko stayed with us in 2003.








Anna and Yanna with Margaret and Siobhan.

Summer 2003 Visitors

Yanna Sadchenko and Anna Jatchenko stayed with us in the summer of 2003. Yanna is from Starrye Tereshkovichi and Anna is from Kalinino, both of which are villages south of Gomel, the second largest city in Belarus. Both girls have done well at school. Yanna passed her exams and has gone into teacher-training. She has also got married and is expecting her first baby. Her mother is Elena and her sister Natasha attends Veterinary College. She is going to be very busy for the next few years. Anna is still at school and lives with mother Svetlana, father Valery and older brother Alexander.
The girls are shown with Angelika Dudina from Minsk who was interpreter with the Craigavon group in 2003.

Oksana and Alla

Oksana Ignatieva with sister Allotchka at home in Nikonovichi village.

Alona Xhuzina and Yulia Yarmolchik

Alona Xhuzina and Yulia Yarmolchik from Bogdanovka village, Luninetts region of Belarus pictured leaving Belfast Zoo during Summer 2002. They stayed with us in Lurgan for a three-week holiday.

Alona lives with her mother Evgenia, while Yulia lives with mother Liuba, father Pavel and brother Sergei.

Oksana Ignatieva

In 2001 Oksana Ignatieva from Nikonovichi village in Bykhov region of Belarus came with Katya Teselskaya for a three-week visit to our family in Lurgan. Here she is shown at home in Nikonovichi with her brother Sasha.

Oksana now attends school in Bykhov where she is doing extremely well. Hopefully she will go on to university.

Katya Teselskaya

Katya Teselskaya, then from Podgorie hamlet near Nikonovichi village in the Bykhov region of Belarus came to stay with us in Lurgan for a three week respite holiday in the summer of 2001. She was accompanied by Oksana Ignatieva. Here Katya is fishing at Kernan Lake outside Gilford, Co. Down. Katya has since moved to Bykhov town where she lives with her parents, Yuri and Ekaterina and her brother Yuri. Her sister Natasha is now married.

Katya's health has deteriorated in recent years. She now suffers from heart and liver problems.

Chernobyl Children Appeal Project

Yulia at home in Lurgan with Margaret and Siobhan during 2006.

In September 2005 the charity Chernobyl Children Appeal brought five Belarusian girls to Ireland to undertake a one-year course of study in Omagh College.

The girls are (from left) Marina Parfyonova, Greta Budarkova (interpreter), Olga Zemusko, Yulia Yarmolchik, Luda Savich and Galya Bekyer. This photo was taken at Marina's 18th birthday party in An Creggan Visitors' Centre.

The girls are studying Child Care, hygiene, computer and English. The girls lodge at An Creggan between Omagh and Cookstown during the week and, at weekends and holiday periods, stay with their host families. Yulia came to stay with our family in 2002 as part of the C.C.A. Summer Respite Holiday Programme and when the educational project was mooted we nominated her as a suitable candidate.