On 8 January Minsk played host to the events of the 22nd national charity campaign "Christmas Tree - Our Children.”
The Christmas Tree event brought together 1,650 children and teenagers from 25 districts of the Brest, Gomel, Mogilev and Minsk Oblasts of Belarus, Bryansk and Smolensk Oblasts of the Russian Federation and Chernigov Oblast of Ukraine affected by the Chernobyl accident.
The children from boarding schools and foster homes were invited to take part in the event. The Christmas Tree was attended by Metropolitan Pavel of Minsk and Zaslavl, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus, the head of the Chernobyl department of the Emergencies Ministry of Belarus Vladimir Chernikov, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Republican Youth Union Andrei Belyakov, Chairman of the Belarusian Peace Fund Maxim Misko, representatives of the clergy and art community.
Photo by Oksana Manchuk.
