belongs to ASF´s International Program for volunteers from Germany.
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The Soviet Union was one of the three countries that was named in the founding of Action Reconciliation for Peace in 1958. The Belarus of today is mostly affected by World War II, known to the people of Belarus as the War of Extermination against the Soviets. Through the deployment of the army group Mitte hundreds of villages were leveled, after which many of these villages disappeared from the map. New research shows that a third of the people from this former Soviet Republic were murdered.
In the 1960’s the first contacts to this country were made. In the beginning of the 1970’s the first study trips of the organization to Minsk, Leningrad and Wolgograd (the former Stalingrad) were initiated. The political conditions hindered this contact, making it only possible to send a group of volunteers to Belarus for the first time in September of 1992. The first project partners were non-profit foundation of Belarus “The Children of Chernobyl” and the Russian-Orthodox church “The Afflicted Joy”. Today the permanent partners include the Republican Children’s Hospital for Oncology in Borowljany, close to Minsk, both homes for the disabled in Nawinki and the BelAPDI, which is a non-profit organization for parents with disabled children, that on one hand teaches how to adjust to daily-life with a disability and on the other hand tries to raise the level of public acceptance of people with disabilities. One of the focal points of the work for the 4-6 volunteers in Minsk includes the caring of former forced-laborers in cooperation with the organization “Dolja”.
Belarus, that was called a “Partisan Republic” in Soviet times, remains attached to the established remembrance as an allied force against Fascism. The official remembrance of the Second World War is dominated by the “Day of Victory”, on May 9th. A monument in the city of Chattyn memorializes the liquidation of the Minsk Ghetto. Stalin’s cleansing of the Belarus villages is not officially mentioned.
The Belarus Republic, with its 10 million inhabitants, is internationally isolated to a large extent. One of the most difficult problems of the country is the aftermath of the reactor catastrophe in 1986 in the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl. Approximately two million people life in the contaminated areas.
It is important that one gets rid of the imbedded stereotypes and moral concepts of the West as quickly as possible, otherwise one will heavily overlook the valid coordinate system. Readiness of communication facilitates the solution of numerous problems in everyday life and advances the learning of the Russian language, which is more commonly used in Belarus than the local language. Readiness to experiences, flexibility and the ability to cope under pressure are definite requirements for a longer stay in Belarus.
