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In April 1986 there was a explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. It was the largest nuclear ‘explosion’ since the Second World War. Although in the Ukraine, Chernobyl is very close to the border of Belarus. At the time, and over the following weeks, the prevailing winds carried the nuclear fallout over the south eastern section of Belarus providing it with the worst contaminated areas from the event. Over the following decade children born in those areas suffered badly from many problems associated from radiation contamination. To this day many areas of the country are out of bounds, are still uninhabitable, and will be for many years to come unless vast amounts of money are provided to try and clean up their lands. It is such a large area of the country of Belarus that millions of people continue to live in contaminated areas and, if they are in a particularly bad area, try to spend as little time as possible outside of their homes to avoid too much contamination. The life expectancy of the people there is low and the level of medical problems (such as cancers) from the contamination are very high.
In the years following this nuclear accident, many charities were set up to provide help to some of the people in those areas. One particular type concentrated on the children of those areas. These charities became known as Chernobyl Children Charities. The service they provided was to organise groups of families in clean countries to sponsor and thus bring, children over to stay in a better environment to improve their health and to extend their life expectancy. As an example, an average child from these areas will have their life term extended by on average 2 years just by staying 1 month in our country. These charities are in operation throughout the Western world and have been since the late 80’s and will no doubt continue to operate for years to come. Today, millions of people are still living in and around contaminated lands. Children spend more time inside than normal in order to minimise the effect of the radiation that is in the lands. As we move into 2008, concern is starting to grow again for the situation at the plant in the Ukraine as it's condition deteriorates. We hope something can be done about it before another accident occurs. | |
