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Happy New Year to you all!

Information

About our forthcoming trip to the Kingisepp Children's Orphan House No. 2, Russia

When do we go?

Between the 19 th to the 28 th June 2004

The Costs

Total cost per person for 10 days will be £520.00. This includes British Airways flights from Heathrow and return, visas, visa invitations, insurance and transfers to and from the orphanage at Kingisepp. Accommodation will be provided in the children's new twin rooms. The rooms are basic but comfortable and breakfast and lunch will be provided. Sadly, because of the demand for flights for this busy ‘White Nights' period we have had to limit our numbers to thirty volunteers this year.

For those of you who prefer more home comforts, there is a pleasant small hotel nearby which can accommodate 12/13 people. The additional cost for use of the hotel during the trip is £120.00. This is for a twin room – sharing. If this appeals to you, let us know in good time: rooms are on a first come first serve basis and we'll need to confirm bookings.

We have had requests from volunteers who would like to stay on for a couple of days in St Petersburg . Unfortunately, due to the phenomenal success of the tercentenary celebrations last year, it is virtually impossible to reserve hotel accommodation.

Payment

Although some of you have already paid your deposit, all volunteers should now send in a non-returnable deposit of £75.00 to arrive with us no later than Friday 20 th February 2004 . Final completion payments are due by Friday 7 th May 2004 .

Flight times

Flights have been arranged with British Airways for:

Departure – London , Heathrow – St Petersburg 19 th June – take off 09.50am

Return – St Petersburg – London Heathrow – 28 th June – landing 17.40pm

Work to be done

As usual, we spent some time discussing our priorities on what would best serve the kids of Russia . Despite being invited back to the Hospital in St Petersburg by Dr Okunev, we concluded that the Orphanage had a greater need for our skills.

Last year we made great efforts and repaired some of the orphanage amenities, but there is still some way to go, and we are hoping 2004 will turn out even better, enabling us to further improve the lives of these unfortunate children. On our visit last December we noted how many of them were bored stiff, left with nothing to do during the long winter evenings after completing their school work (it is dark by 4.00pm ). Let us have your suggestions on how we can make life more interesting for them.

We plan to instigate another large project this summer and after many discussions, have decided to concentrate our efforts on the bathrooms, bedrooms, toilet and showers where the boys were staying. This appears to be their priority. We are also looking at the possibility of creating a games/TV room or a computer room (if you know anyone discarding an old system please let us know). We are also contemplating other work, such as laying out a football pitch on the waste ground alongside the orphanage, effecting repairs to the perimeter fence and building a new fence around the basketball pitch, plus any repairs that are needed for the work we did last year.

Equipment needed….

For the kids – an urgent need for table tennis equipment (bats & balls), pub football game, and a pool table – in fact anything to amuse the kids and alleviate their boredom during the long evenings. We also need replacement basketballs as those we took over last year have unfortunately either been lost or punctured.

Last year we took our toiletries and clothes for the children at Orphan House No 2, plus some toys for the younger kids at Orphan House No 1. We have since discovered that House No 2 gets help with clothes from a Finnish charity, so this year we have decided to take just toiletries such as toothbrushes, towels and face clothes.

….and for building

We desperately need a ladder, electric and battery operated drills, more smoke alarms like the ones supplied by Hannah which we fitted in the bathrooms and hallways – these quickly served their purpose when someone started a fire in a litter bin. Fortunately, it was quickly put out. So, if anyone has contacts who might supply materials please let us know. Once more, we are hoping Dulux will help us again with another donation of paint. But in order for us to continue where we left off last year it is critical that we raise more money. Ideally, we should raise at least £15,000 for our forthcoming trip in June. We are constantly on the lookout to find new sources of funds. So pass the word around and let's all start scouting for some rich sponsors.

A-G-M

The Charity Annual General Meeting was held on January 10 th 2004 and we would like to thank all of those who attended, as well as those of you who sent in postal votes. The prime concern of the meeting was to vote for the Charity committee to continue the good work. The committee members were all re-elected as was Ken Harper as Chairman.

Charity Notes

10 th Anniversary Charity Ball

Our 10 th anniversary was originally proposed for April 2004, to coincide with our very first trip. But in order to give us time to organise our June trip the committee have decided to put the celebrations back until later in the year. The dinner dance has now been re-scheduled for Saturday, October 16 th and we are looking forward to you all joining us at The Richmond Hill Hotel. We've been to see the venue to check out the facilities and everything looks great!

Gift Aid

As a registered Charity we are now eligible for Gift Aid, which has proved very beneficial to our funds. Any donation, whatever its value, can be specified as Gift Aid and the government then gives us a free 28%!

Truckers wanted…

We are looking for two responsible volunteers to take on the take of driving our van over to Kingisepp for the forthcoming June visit. But anyone interested should remember that the return trip will take about 3 weeks.

New Director

The orphanage now has a new director – Olga Molchanova. She has worked at the orphanage for two years and is familiar with its problems. She was deputy director during our last visit and has now been promoted to the top job. She takes over from Rimma Zharkova who has moved on to take up a position at the city hall.

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