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Tennis star Maria Sharapova donates more than $30,000 for children-oriented projects to be carried out in Chernobyl-affected areas in Homyel region

Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), has donated more than $30,000 for children-oriented projects to be carried out in the Chernobyl-affected Brahin and Chachersk districts of the Homyel region.

Of the amount, $14,000 is to be spent for opening subsidiaries of a music school in five villages, $8,000 for supporting the Chachersk Central District Hospital, where a children’s psychic and physical development and rehabilitation room is to be opened, and $9,700 for financing environmental awareness groups at the Chachersk Children’s Art Center, which would publish an environmental newspaper and conduct environmental monitoring in the district.

“These three projects were devised by local residents with the assistance of officers of the Cooperation for Rehabilitation [CORE] program, Oleg Sobolev, UNDP deputy director for support of the CORE program, told BelaPAN. “Donors were looked for for a long time. We are very glad that money has finally been found with the help of the CORE program.”

Applications for permission to use the donated funds have been sent to the Humanitarian Activities Department of the Presidential Administration. A reply is expected within a month.