Welcome to our Chernobyl project for 2017

[KnottyAndPistey]

Welcome to our Chernobyl project for 2017!! So glad to have you on board!

For the last three years we have been making warm, comforting Little Hugs for Belarusian teenagers and children visiting the UK for recuperative holidays during the summer with the fabulous charity the Chernobyl Children's Project and Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline. Photos from the Leeds group can be seen here.. and our finished blankets from last year here…

Each year these marvellous charities bring children who live in the most contaminated area near the Chernobyl reactor over to the UK. In summer, when the dust causes radiation levels to rise, it becomes even more important for as many children as possible to leave their contaminated homeland for a few weeks of fresh air and clean food. The rates of childhood cancer are very high, the most common cancers being thyroid and leukemia. Coming to the UK for a four week break increases their immunity against the awful disease by up to 3 years when they return home. Often these children are in remission. Sadly though there is a high chance of these children falling ill again. They all suffer living in such difficult conditions and with very little.

Last year 36 children, teens and their interpreters went home with a beautiful Woolly Hug. This year we are keen to help even more groups, so Liverpool, Gloucester/Leeds (same Leeds group but this year spending 2 weeks at each location) Portsmouth and Helpston,Northampton.

That is about 70+ blankets!!

With your help we know we can do this

Please do join us, here’s how..

Crafting Information

• We would like 12" squares in bright and cheery Stylecraft Special DK colours.
• PLEASE AVOID USING black, bright green, bright pink, browns, greys, citron, sunshine, fiesta, jaffa and any pale pastels, white or cream for practical reasons. This will help squares fit together more easily.
• Make squares in a neutral colour theme, or more specifically for a boy or girl. As much as we don’t like to think of colour as being gender specific, these children may.
• We will be happy to accept 6" squares if making a 12" one feels too much.
• Crochet or knitted, 4mm hook or needles. Single colour, mixed colour, simple, complex. No blocking and please sew in pesky ends.
• If needed, we can supply yarn. Let us know if we can send to you.
• Posting of squares please to the South Coast address, PM if you need it.

If you think you’d like to make a whole blanket that is WONDERFUL, but please contact us first. We will be asking for gender neutral blankets which are 48 inches by 60m, but would just like to chat to you first, thank you!

Supporting with funds
If anyone would like to donate funds to support this, we would be so grateful. Please PM us for the donation info. Thank you xx

Can anyone help with extras?
There are a few extras which we will be collecting too alongside squares, items which really help, if you would like to add in any of these we would love to receive them for the children, thank you, bless you.

Underwear aged 10 plus. New only

• Adult size socks (one size fits all) new
• Toothbrushes, single packed please
• Hairbrushes
• Toiletries, toothpaste, shower gel, shampoo etc, but not bars of soap please.
• Sanitary Towels
• Plasters
• Vitamins, please check suitable for 10 years+
• Any little luxuries that teens might love, eg hair clips, make up bits, stickers etc.

If you would like to add 50p in when you post squares for ice creams that would be so kind, we will split any money we receive between the groups.

Last posting of squares (plus whole blankets) and any extras is Saturday 8th April

No later please as we have to get on and sort at the end of that following week. Thank you. The rush will be on as the first group, Portsmouth arrive in May.

What a big ask! Good grief!

But the fabulous Woolly Hug crew never fail to amaze, last year was an astonishing team effort, as the photo shows, we know that together we can do this.

On behalf of these children and their families, a huge THANK YOU.
Actually, thank you doesn't really come close.

Us xxx

• Photo is the collection from last year that went to the Portsmouth group.

Mhw02 -wow, you must be a knitting ninja, an hour and a half, I feel faint. Do you think knitting uses more wool or less than crochet.

Very clever idea to weigh the squares MrsH, mine weighs 15g so I should get 6 out of each ball. Yikes, I'll be knitting up to the deadline.

Think knitting uses a wee bit less? But to be honest I hardly ever knit!

When I say an hour and a half, I mean a completely plain square in stocking stitch! Add any sort of lacework, cabling or colour changes and the time taken multiplies exponentially - I've knitted owl squares a few times that have taken six or seven hours!

If you want to see an actual knitting ninja look at this lady:

User I have reported your post - you've already posted an entire thread asking this question. Why are you now trying to hijack this thread?

The rates of childhood cancer are at 75%; the most common cancers being thyroid and leukaemia

I have named changed but I am a long time member and also work for an organisation that is expert in radiation matters.

I was surprised when I read this statistic and instinctly suspect that it is unlikely to be true.

Remember that today's children will not have been born until many years after the accident. It is true that their parents may have been exposed and that there are likely to be effects due to this. The Chernobyl Children's project is a wonderful thing so not wanting to take anything away from what they are doing.

There is still an exclusion zone and there will be people living there, but most people were evacuated. There are people living in other areas due to restrictions, that may or may not be followed (consumption of vegetables or meat grown on contaminated soil for example).

It is also true that the stress, poverty and disruption due to the accident will have had widespread detrimental health effects. But I don't think this equates to 75% of today's children having leukemia or thyroid cancer.

Anyway, anyone wanting to read up on internationally recognised, expertly peer reviewed information on the subject is in luck as the main UK scientific journal for all matters radiation has recently pubished a 30 year anniversary special dedicated to Chernobyl (and 5 years since Fukushima) which is freely available to everyone until the end of March.

This can be accessed here:

iopscience.iop.org/journal/0952-4746/page/Focus-on-Chernobyl-and-Fukushima

All the most reliable information about cancer statistics will be available there. Sorry I do not have the time to read and summarise it all myself, this is not my particular area of expertise.

But Madame curie, what does it matter?? The fact remains that the children ARE ill. No one can argue with that. The stats stated in the OP might not be actual fact (I doubt even the WHO know the extent of the ongoing damage) There WILL be effects on germ cells, you must know this. Some of those effects will not manifest until later life.

But please please please can we draw a line under this. The other thread was deleted. Please don't let this derail this thread any further :(

Thanks Madame curie, i will look at that a bit later this morning, when I have some undisturbed time

have reported your post - you've already posted an entire thread asking this question. Why are you now trying to hijack this thread?

The other thread was deleted for being a TAAT. So I don't see how she has any choice other than to post on this one.

Possibly the least de-railing way to manage what is a perfectly legitimate request for further information is to point to where the stat originally came from. The most de-railing mode would be for multiple posters to make several posts each, expressing outrage at the question being asked. Or perhaps taking umbridge at the way it was asked.

Either way, having seen how the OP was dog piled, I'd like to know where the stat came from too. Because there appears to have been a massive over reaction to what should be a relatively simple question to answer.

More importantly - I have made two squares in what can only be described as BRIGHT GREEN! Is this a disaster? should I send them to one of your other projects? they are in Candy's palette so there maybe (just that I have already done some of those and have more to send and thought this one a deserving project too).

Thank you for the opportunity to do a tiny thing that may make someone feel loved and cared about.

Oh and if you want to sock puppet, that's fine, just send your socks to the address that the OP will provide if you ask.

Having skimmed the papers presented in your reference Marie - it is clear that even the experts are confused about the ongoing effects of the disaster on this area. Again, it matters not, these children are in need, no one is questioning that and clearly benefit greatly from their visits. Long may it continue. So the OP's statistics are inaccurate - SO WHAT! Even the experts concede that the statistics surrounding this event are patchy to say the least and whilst some of the studies suggest that direct effects on certain types of cancer are relatively low, they ALL clearly state that it is likely to be HIGHER than current evidence suggests and that we will more than likely never really know the true impact.

now please ENOUGH

Please

LEM I have used bright green in mine too!

I double checked the list though, I think there are two greens we can use.

I don't understand why a perfectly legitimate question wasn't answered either. Or why it provoked such abuse. Why wasn't some effort made to answer or educate - surely that's more important than blanket squares!

All you've done by being so vile to User is make the (probably wonderful) charity look really really dodgy.

If a charity is making stuff up to further their cause what on earth are casual readers like me supposed to think? It isn't good enough to say well, yes our stats are completely made up but it's clear there are kids in need. Why the need to lie in the first place?

You should jolly well know that before you go asking for money and it does matter a great deal. What a mess.

It does matter that the claims be accurate, or at least defensible. Even if it's 70% rather than 75% it should be backed up.

I expect it's a claim from the Chernobyl charity which K&P are reproducing in good faith. I'll have a look and see if I can work it where it originates.

WHERE have the Wooly hug people asked for money? Please please stop this now.

Oooh thanks poltergoose - those squares took Aaaaaages :) Although they would have been equally welcomed for Candy's hugs, I did them with this project in mind.

I am sorry I got so angry, but honestly just feel defensive of what is a wonderful charity. Mrs H I agree that K&P were probably quoting from the Chernobyl charity. It would appear that even the experts can't agree on the statistics. I don't know where the 75% came from but it is very very easy to misinterpret stats, what matters is the intentions are good and the end result from this thread as that is has raised awareness of the situation. I was actually gobsmacked that people still live in the contaminated areas, I genuinely did not know this.

I will apologise to User for the name calling as that was unnecessary but I have been so upset by all of this and have hardly slept.

But this is not about me, lets just keep on hooking. User - maybe you could pick up your knitting needles? You can fashion some out of this olive branch if you like

What a wonderful thing to do. I have never knitted but will certainly be sending off a shoebox.

Some useful reading from one of the charities this project supports:

Links between nuclear reactors and increased incidence of childhood cancers in general

I can't find a hit for the 75% claim but there are some comments about incidence increasing at the 80% level (ie 180% of normal rates).