Brest Regional Youth Public Association (BOMOO) "The disabled person and the environment" from June 19 to August 5, 2004, carried out three stages of the environmental program "Oak Forest of Joy" ISAR.
STAGE 1 - introductory
Young disabled people and young families of disabled people from June 19 to 26, 2004 on White Lake carried out a set of events aimed at the possibility of developing eco-tourism for the most disadvantaged category of people. In our region there are no tourist centers adapted to accommodate people with disabilities. Therefore, on t.b. "Satellite", Beloga Lake was equipped with a tourist parking lot for 30 people with physical disabilities.
RESULTS:
1. An area not far from the tank has been selected and cleared. Satellite" for tents and summer awnings.
2. A special canopy complex was built. For holding a tent camp for disabled people during bad weather. (Tables, washbasins, kitchen, stage, classroom for theoretical studies.)
3. A special toilet has been equipped for wheelchair users.
The experience of environmental programs in 2001-2002, especially "Oak Forest of Joy", showed that the love of nature is deeply absorbed by children directly with their parents in the summer outside the city. Through thoughtful environmental actions and games, we achieved amazing results.
Before the start of the program in April, a 10-day visit to the tourist base took place "Satellite" twenty people. Active rehabilitation and selection of not only creatively capable children, but also hardy ones who can withstand the stress of physical labor and tent living during the improvement and restoration of the Tsar Oak took place. This program was financed by the Youth Affairs Committee of the Brest Regional Executive Committee.
Architect and individual entrepreneur Luksha A.A. designed the improvement of tourist parking areas and an oak umbrella roof.
OOO "Youth Initiative Center" Brest district, White Lake t.b. "Satellite" assisted in carrying out three environmental phases, provided equipment, workshops and hiking and cycling equipment.
"White Lake"is a resort area of Republican significance. On its territory there are 10 tourist centers, a children's health center and a sanatorium. "Berestye". The total number of vacationers during the summer period simultaneously exceeds 2000 people. Due to the country’s economic problems, attendance at the nearby (within a radius of 3 sq. km.) four lakes has increased, and at a wildly uncontrolled level. Excessive saturation and barbaric, unorganized tourism have a detrimental effect on the ecological pearl of our region. This problem was studied and provided to us by two students from Brest University. A.S. Pushkin Gusev Roman and Ivan under the leadership of Karpuk V.K. Belarusian Geographical Society, Candidate of Geographical Sciences. They analyzed the detrimental impact on the ecology of the sanatorium-resort area of White Lake from intensive, unorganized tourism.
STAGE 2 - improvement and restoration of the king oak.
From June 23 to 30, 20 young disabled people, volunteers, and climbers set off on bicycles and wheelchairs from Brest to the Malorita district, where they held a work camp in the Pozhezhinsky forests for 7 days. A small group of three people from June 19 to 21 walked a tourist route through the Beloe and Mednyanskoe lakes of the Brest region to the Malorita region to the Tsar Oak.
They set up campsites and fire pits. A meeting and a preliminary agreement took place with the Museum of Antiquities and Life in Medno. A new tourist route has been analyzed.
And on June 23, a work camp was set up directly next to the crippled oak tree. The main group was located in the premises of the school in the village of Staroye Ramatovo. During this period, the king himself, the oak tree, was fenced off. The parking area near it has been improved. The damaged oak top was processed and cleaned. The sargofak - roof - was mounted and raised to the top. A sign was carved out of wood and a symbolic pillar was erected. According to the project, tourists visiting the oak will build a cobblestone pavement resembling the shape of the oak itself. As a tribute of respect, every tourist should bring with him a pebble from his homeland and thereby be an accomplice in restoring the greatness of our Mother Nature. A memorable meeting took place with representatives of nature conservation of the Malorita regional executive committee. Everyday visits and help from the Pozhezhinsky forestry, all this in one impulse united people who were sick for our native natural home.
STAGE 3 - analysis of the work performed\
From August 1 to August 3, a formal and informal group crossed the border of the Republic of Poland and headed to Bialystok to get acquainted with the projected cable car along the tops of oak trees in the Bialystok area of the Białowieża Forest on the Polish side. On bicycles and a wheelchair we crossed the border in Peschatka near the town of Vysokoye. We met in Białystok with the architects and designers of the planned cable car. When we visited the site, we were convinced of the good intentions of the proposed work. We suggested our own visions and jointly outlined ways of cooperation. We returned along the Bug River through the holy places of the coast to Brest through Terespol with our cycling marathon and safely crossed the border. After analyzing the options for the Polish project and the proposed options for our idea, we decided to leave the landscape untouched. After all, the idea itself is to walk along the tops of mighty oak trees, not from a bird’s eye view and in the cockpit, but to directly feel the foliage, and show courage, strength, ingenuity, dexterity, in a word, all those character traits necessary for the rehabilitation of a young disabled person.
The GOAL of the project has almost been achieved. We hope in the future, together with commercial and government agencies, to organize active tourism for people with disabilities in the Brest region. Interested people appeared. With the help of volunteer climbers, disabled people managed to save a wounded centuries-old oak tree and organize a walking and cycling route "Oak Forest of Joy", connecting it with the marshy bridging path and the ethnographic museum. Expand tourism activities in the region while protecting the environment and using natural and ethnographic resources. A new trump card has appeared in this route - PEOPLE WITH LIMITED CAPABILITIES RESTORED THE WOUNDED OAK ON THE EVE OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF THE RB. Next year, other groups of organizations of disabled people in the Brest region are already planning to take this route.
TASKS have been completed in order to force everyone to think about the natural home where we live through their overwhelming deeds. They not only rehabilitated society, but also strengthened the spiritually and physically disabled. We confirmed cooperation with government agencies in carrying out planned joint mass environmental actions. We practically involved young disabled people in the active environmental life of our society. The global environmentally healthy lifestyle was promoted everywhere. We attracted specialists in this area, children, and youth. They showed by their example the consequences of environmental pollution. The media emphasized this international action.
We attracted the volunteer movement, specialists, a large number of children and practically developed a new route that enriches ecotourism with the ethnographic heritage of the region.
The method of analyzing the harmful effects of unorganized tourism will make it possible to force the public to rightly sound the alarm and come to a solution to these problems at the state level.
Starting from the preparatory stage, a team of 12 people conducted an environmental camp with twenty people, as well as a working environmental camp "Oak of Hope" (20 people with the involvement of volunteers and climbers), for children from the Chernobyl zone of 300 people, the local population of the village of Mednoye and Pozhezhinskaya, Romatov zone. There was great activity in helping local residents, forestry and government officials, as well as the local press.
Together with the regional department of physical education and sports and the department of culture and education, our research results will be reviewed on the analysis of the harmful effects on the ecology of the White Lake sanatorium-resort area from intensive unorganized tourism, as well as on the organization and improvement of a new tourist route and rehabilitation tourism for the disabled in general.
The assistance of the Youth Affairs Committee of the Brest Regional Executive Committee, cooperation with disabled people of the Lublin Voivodeship, (we will practically analyze the possibilities of ecotourism for disabled people in Belarus and Poland) with the commercial structure of LLC are provided. "Center for Youth Initiative" Brest district (create a barrier-free environment in the village. "Satellite)" in return for assistance in conducting three environmental groups.