Bedales School lights Candles for Chernobyl victims
About Bedales
Bedales School lights candles for Chernobyl victims
27/04/2011
Bedales School became part of a Europe wide initiative on Tuesday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Students and teachers, including Bedales Headmaster Keith Budge, got together to light candles and form the number 25, joining charities across Europe to simultaneously mark the date to form “25 people holding candles” in as many locations as possible on the eve of the disaster.
On 26 April 1986, reactor 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, 100 km north of Kiev, blew up during a routine daily operation. Nearly nine tons of radioactive material – 90 times as much as the Hiroshima bomb – was hurled into the sky. Winds over the following days, mostly blowing north and west, carried fallout into Belarus, Ukraine as well as Russia, Poland and the Baltic region causing widespread contamination and serious illness amongst the population ever since.
Every year Bedales Head of Chemistry, Michael Newman, helps the Chernobyl Children’s visit initiative in Petersfield, when local families take in primary school age children from Belarus for a period of time and give them hope, better health and love. Michael organises a three day visit to Bedales for these children and is very passionate about helping the victims, a passion that is shared throughout the Bedales community.
To watch a time-lapsed film of the candle-lighting ceremony click here.
