From Cadiz in South Spain over Münster in Germany to Sheffield in Great Britain – and from Huelva in Southwest Spain over Weimar until Doneszk in the East of the Ukraine the lights of solidarity are lit: In more than 110 cities in western and eastern Europe people lit candles on the 26th anniversary of the reactor catastrophe of Chernobyl and commemorated its victims. The first Europe-wide action weeks for a future after Chernobyl and Fukushima (April, 22-29, 2012) – initiated by the IBB Dortmund – met an overwhelming positive response with candle events and around 300 time witness talks.
“Just in Portsmouth 5000 people have listened attentively to the memories of time witnesses. In Poland the time witnesses were in great demand as well. By this kind of great feedback our partner organisations in Poland, Spain and Great Britain were positively surprised”, a positive summary is given by Peter Junge-Wentrup, CEO of the IBB Dortmund and initiator of the action weeks these days. 30 time witnesses from Belarus and Ukraine and for the first time also three time witnesses from Fukushima in Japan were placed by the IBB Dortmund with the participating constituencies and initiatives. They narrated in moving reports what kind of long-term consequences the radiation spread as a result of the Chernobyl tragedy has had on people and wide areas until today and under which existential fears the people live in the region Fukushima.
For the time witness talks the IBB Dortmund has won the minister for Schools and Continuing Training in North Rhine-Westphalia, Sylvia Löhrmann, as a patron: “Chernobyl and now Fukushima are an admonisher for excessive believe in technology, and an admonisher for our manipulation of environment and energy. This technology is uncontrollable, because a single error leads to dramatic consequences.” She is glad to support the idea of the action weeks, she says in a greeting: “The action weeks create an European bond and testify the will to change.”
The constituencies have enriched the action weeks with charity concerts (amongst others in Weimar) and many artistic projects and activities: Great attention received a German-Belorussian adolescent dance project in Mülheim, directed by choreographer Ulla Weltike for the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl children aid of Mülheim. The leader of the Duisburg dance-theatre performed Orff–s Carmina Burana on 26th April 2012 with around 80 adolescents from Germany and Belarus. The show in the nearly sold out city hall – under the patronage of the North Rhine-Westphalian health minister Barbara Steffens – was awarded with long-lasting elated applause.
In Gelsenkirchen the exhibition “26 years after Chernobyl – a year after Fukushima” within the scope of “week of the sun” was opened. Time witness Jurij Watzkel is available for time witness talks until the 10th May 2012, amongst others within the scope of the job and education fair renewable energies and energy efficiency on the 4th and 5th May 2012. A new memorial was uncovered to commemorate Chernobyl by the constituency Kamen within the scope of the Europe-wide action weeks. The constituency Rottweil pieced together origami cranes of hope, which were put together into a mobile. In Schneverdingen (Lower Saxony) special candles were cast for preparing the memorial event. The coalition Minden-Lübbecke sold artistic and philatelic rarities for a good cause: Stamps, which had been designed by Japanese students in 1991 at the Tajima-Festival in Fukushima under the direction of the mail-artist Peter Küstermann from Minden. The numbered original exemplars of the stamps , which were offered for sale, had warned amongst others about the dangers of nuclear energy already in 1991.
“Chernobyl must not be forgotten, because with its consequences generations after us have to live”, asserts IBB CEO Peter Junge-Wentrup. The International Association for Education and Exchange in Dortmund had the idea for the action weeks in November 2011 and bundles the activities in the European network of the Chernobyl initiatives.
Some activities in connection to the action weeks for a future after Chernobyl and Fukushima are being continued in the coming weeks and month: For example is the exhibition “Chernobyl – people – places – solidarity” shown on the 98. German Catholic Day from 16th until 20th May 2012 in Mannheim. Russian and Ukrainian versions of the exhibition are on their way since April for the European football championship 2012 in the Ukraine and are going to be exhibited in Belarus in autumn 2012.
You can find further information at: www.ibb-d.de.
Photo: Time witnesses of the Chernobyl catastrophe commemorated the 26th anniversary at the Chernobyl monument in Charkiw in the Ukraine.