When Tom McEnaney first travelled to Belarus in 1998 he was still working as a journalist for the Sunday Tribune. At the time, a small group of Irish volunteers headed out to Belarus to help renovate a number of orphanages.

Ever since, McEnaney has returned year after year to Belarus with the same charity, known as the International Orphanage Development Programme (IODP). Interestingly, IODP has turned to farming as a solution to helping orphanages in Belarus.

“I remember on my second trip to Belarus in 1999, we saw an orphanage that had its own farm. The kids even got a small allowance for working on it. But I noticed the farm was struggling. The crops were infested with insects and were all different heights,” says McEnaney.

“It was clear they couldn’t afford inputs like sprays or fertiliser. And the farm had to borrow machinery from the local collective farm to harvest or sow crops, meaning they were always missing the key windows of the year for the crops,” he adds.

McEnaney and his colleagues decided to try and improve the productivity of the farm. With the money they raised in Ireland every year, they began investing in high-quality seeds from the Netherlands as well as crop inputs like sprays and fertiliser. They even managed to buy some basic machinery for the farm, including a plough and tractor.

Transformed

Over a number of years, McEnaney says they completely transformed the farm to the point where it was growing cereals like wheat and barley, but also potatoes, beet, lettuce, cucumbers, carrots and other vegetables.

“The improvement in the farm did a number of things for the orphanage. Firstly, the wider variety of crops grown greatly improved the diet of the children in the orphanage. The kids used to help on the farm so it taught them valuable skills which they could use in later life,” says McEnaney.

“And then the farm eventually started producing a surplus of food, which it could now sell. For the first time, the farm was generating an income stream for the orphanage, which could be used to make small purchases,” he adds.

Over the last 20 years, IODP has now developed working farms for seven orphanages across Belarus. McEnaney says they typically start with a 100-acre farm and grow it from there. Unlike in Ireland, availability of farmland is not a difficulty. In some cases, local authorities will give the land to the orphanage for free if they commit to developing the land.

As the farm gets off the ground, McEnaney says it will become more self-sustaining and be able to make investments in better inputs and machinery. And while the orphanage farms always start out in tillage, McEnaney says they will move into other areas of farming in time.

“We recently installed piggeries in each of the orphanage farms. And we were even able to install an apiary on one farm after we raised enough money to buy 10 beehives. Not only did the bees help the farm from a biodiversity perspective but it also allowed the kids to taste honey for the very first time,” he says.

Playgrounds

Outside of the farms, the IODP also works to install playgrounds and other amenities at the orphanages it works with.

“Some of these children have had really tough upbringings. So just sending the signal to them that it’s OK to play is really important for them,” says McEnaney.

A big part of the work that the IODP does for Belorussian orphans is around Christmas time when it delivers presents to needy children. However, because of COVID-19 restrictions, McEnaney says this is the first time in over two decades that he and other Irish volunteers couldn’t travel to Belarus for Christmas.

Despite not being able to travel himself this year, McEnaney can confirm that Santa did make it to Belarus to deliver Christmas presents to the children.

If you would like to donate to the IODP you can do so by searching for International Orphanage Development Programme on idonate.ie