Chernihiv Region Charity
“Aratta”

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BHA History

British Humanitarian Aid www.britishhumanitarianaid.co.uk was founded in the spring 1990 in England, when Tony Budell was greatly moved by the Ester Ransen programme about the plight of the orphans in Romania. His first solo trip with a vehicle full of aid grew into a massive operation over the years that followed. 94 convoys were run to Romania and to the Balkans during the conflict there that followed the collapse, in 1991, of the Yugoslav Federation. The largest convoy comprised of a Guinness World Record number, for a peacetime convoy from the UK, of 105 vehicles. While Tony was running this programme he received a letter from a hospital in Chernihiv, in the north of Ukraine, telling of their desperate circumstances after the explosion at Chernobyl and the lack of support they were receiving. Tony’s first trip to Ukraine, where he found pitiful conditions, was in March 1995. Since the end of the Balkans conflict in 2002 our work has been focused on Chernihiv Region, Ukraine where our mission is to support the handicapped and impoverished.

Operation

BHA basically recycles unwanted goods from the UK as aid to Chernihiv Region Ukraine. These goods come from private individuals, schools, churches, and businesses. Much we collect but some is delivered direct to us at our warehouses in Canterbury. The majority of the aid is in the form of clothing, bedding and shoes but we take a wide range of items where it is appropriate for our work with the social services, children’s homes, schools and hospitals that we support throughout the region. The distribution of all the items is carried out under the strict supervision of the authorities. These days, because of the quantities involved and the saving in overall costs, all aid is sent by 40 tonne trucks rather than by convoys of smaller vehicles.

BHA has no major sponsorship and the vast majority of its funding comes from donations made by ordinary people whose extraordinary generosity enables the charity to function and to support the people in Ukraine. I should add that the Hemel Hempstead depot of the firm Gist, who provide M&S with much of their food transport, have been kind enough to provide us with free lorries for several years and also that the C P Charitable Trust have helped by funding several lorries. As hiring a lorry costs £3500 these days that is a considerable help to BHA. At least the aid transported justifies the costs as an average load has a value of £30,000 if one puts charity shop prices on the goods.

The Directors of BHA visit Chernihiv Region regularly to monitor the work and to assess the changing situations in the many districts and organisations that seek our help.  

One of the directors and founders of organisation is Tony Budell, whose biography is shortly here.

Born 29th November 1943. At the age of four I was placed in an orphanage. The only memories of my mother were of beatings. At the age of eight I was sent to a foster mother. The only memories of my foster mother were of beatings and sexual abuse. At the age of sixteen, I ran away and joined the army. At the age of 20 yrs I married and after only five days, was sent on a 3 year overseas tour of duty to Aden, Singapore and Hong Kong. My new wife had to remain in England. She wrote every day but after two years, the letters stopped and I have not seen her to this day. I came out of the army when I was 24 years old and became a truck driver and this I did until I was 44 years old. During 1988, I twice attempted suicide as my life was as miserable and unhappy as it could possibly be. I realised that at the third attempt, I would be successful and my life would be over and done with. (I was really happy about this prospect). At 10am on the 12th May 1988, I was sitting on a bench overlooking the harbour in Dover, England. I was feeling really miserable when suddenly, someone called my name. A second time my name was called, and then a third time and I suddenly realised that the ‘voice’ was not coming from outside of me, but from the inside. At this stage of my life I had never been to church, never prayed, or done anything for anyone unless I was paid to do so. The ‘voice said the following words:- “Tony, I have given everyone a cross to bear, some heavy and some, not so heavy. I am going to give you the spiritual strength to carry other people’s crosses and whilst you do this for me, I am going to carry yours.” I cried and cried for over two hours, and then realised that God had actually spoken to me.

My life changed totally on that day. I gave up truck driving and went in search of what was missing in my life. I eventually found what was missing, not outside of me, but within my own heart.

Five different people on five consecutive days all offered me the same job. It was as a porter in my local hospital, working in the accident and emergency department, the X-ray department and the Mountbatten Cancer care unit. I actually hated hospitals, but took the position offered anyway. Instead of hating the work, I quickly found that I loved it tremendously. For nearly three years, I worked at the hospital and found that every single patient that I came in contact with was actually teaching me something about myself. They taught me to be a better person, a more loving person, a kinder person and it a great wrench when I had to leave.

I had met my Valerie and one evening, whilst watching the news, we saw the terrible plight of the orphans in Romania and I told Valerie that I felt that I should go and help them. Valerie has always said to me that I should ‘follow my heart’ and in so doing, I set of with my car and trailer to the Orphan’s of Mother Teresa in Bucharest. I eventually arrived after a 4 day journey and to my surprise found the Mother Teresa was paying a visit to her orphanage and I spent the day with this remarkable lady. I was about to leave and return home, when Mother Teresa gave me some words to remember:- “Tony, no-one can do great things, only small things with great love.” Those words have enabled me to carry out the tasks I have felt God has wanted me to perform.

The trip to Romania was, I thought, going to be just a ‘one off’ but other people wanted to go, so I returned again and again until so many people wanted to accompany me that I created something called, ‘The Convoy of Hope’.

Romania was the start, but the convoy’s I took soon became convoys of hope to Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo.

Taking these convoys into the war zones of the former Yugoslavia was a tremendous responsibly because if I had taken them to a truly dangerous situation, I would never have able to forgive myself should any one of them have been killed or injured. In total, I successfully managed to take 186 of these convoys which is now in the Guinness Book of World Records and also the largest which was 105 vehicles.

I was then asked to help the impoverished families in a strange country called, Ukraine! I have to be honest at this point and say that I had to look in my atlas to find out where the Ukraine was?

On that very first visit, I met a very shy school teacher who would act as my interpreter. Her name was Victoria Filatova.

Other director of organisation is Philip Edmonds. He is working hard to increase the amount of aid delivered and tried to get the two charities working in a more consistent and professional manner.