Home The Chernobyl disaster Chernobyl Children Lifeline Totnes and Ivybridge Link How you can help - Hosting - Friends / Buddies - Fundraising - Donating - Sponsorship - Payroll giving Frequently asked questions Gallery Get in touch with the link Further resources With thanks Members area Site map	In order to differentiate between the levels of commitment that people might be able to offer, we have a scheme to identify 'Buddies' and 'Friends': A Buddy is a fancy name for someone who cannot host, but who can support the host families and help out with the children's hectic social and activity programme. Buddies are CRB checked in the same way as host families and work together with the host families to ensure that the Belarussian children have a great visit. Typical things a Buddy might do include driving the children to a scheduled activity and helping whilst there, babysitting, and perhaps caring for the children for a weekend if the host family has prior commitments. Some Buddies also host the Belarusian adult interpreter and often form life-long friendships as a result. For the Buddy scheme to work, both Buddies and Host families must liaise before the visit to establish the requirements and availability of each.  For example if a Buddy can't offer to host the children for a weekend, they wouldn't be paired with a Host family who need this support. There are many ways you can help in the organisation without Hosting or being a Buddy. We have to raise approximately £350 for each child that visits us - this includes airfares, incidentals and excursion costs.  For a party of 10 children, this is obviously a minimum of £3500 that has to be raised, and any help is very welcomed. There is a lot of administration involved in organising a successful visit, arranging publicity and of course keeping this website up to date. Whatever your skill, I am sure that we can find a use for it! Friends include all the healthcare professionals who help us, and all those many people who have fun with us and help us to raise money. Our Friends never have sole responsibilty for the children, and therefore do not have to be CRB checked.