Chernobyl Charities

Please help the victims of the world’s worst man-made disaster

On April 26th 1986 there was an accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl - the worst man-made peace-time catastrophe the world has yet seen. Some of the 190 tons of radioactive debris was blown around the world but 70% of it fell over the Republic of Belarus, subjecting its population of 10.2 million people to high levels of radioactivity - some 300 times greater than the bomb at Hiroshima. Villages were evacuated, prime farmland and forests were lost and only 1% of the land within 100 miles of Chernobyl remained uncontaminated, the area has become an ecological disaster. One of the most devastating results has been the effect on the children, as always they suffer the most. The children of large areas of Belarus are at a very high risk of contracting cancer or leukemia. Little was done initially to protect them from the harmful effects of radiation or to prevent them from coming into further contact with the damaging radioactive pollution.

Children have inherited a terrible, tragic legacy. They live, drink, eat, breathe, sleep in radioactive contamination.

Since the accident little has changed or improved:

• New spots of radioactive contamination are still being discovered and villages continue to be closed
   
• Radiation levels in the soil have hardly changed, so the contamination continues through the food-chain
   
• There has been an increase in childhood cancers, thyroid damage, chest infections, eyesight problems, respiratory problems and anaemia
   
• The hospitals are without basic drugs and equipment and the children are not even receiving the most rudimentary treatment
   
• Vital care for the increased numbers of premature babies is limited
   
• Family life is suffering as a result of the increase in suicides and marriage breakdowns
   
• Schools are desperately short of teaching resources and the orphanages, while caring, are almost bereft of any homely touches.

The plight of these children goes mostly unrecognised and unaided by the rest of the world. Please contact these charities, to find out how you can make a difference.

www.chernobyl.org.uk
www.focc.org.uk
www.chernobylchildlifeline.org
www.chernobyl-children.org.uk
www.chernobyl-international.com