Chernobyl disaster

To help children suffering from the after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster and economic situation

Chernobyl Children Life Line (Sheffield link)

On 26th April 1986 an accidental explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station started an enormous fire which lasted for several days. The explosion and the fire caused 200 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to be released into the environment and radiation levels in the plant, (at 15,000 times normal), were high enough to destroy the human nervous system in 30 minutes. This was carried by the wind and fell over large areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Over 70% of the radioactivity fell over Belarus, contaminating one fifth of the land. Some of the effects are as follows:

- Hundreds of rural villages have ceased to exist - many rural people have been evacuated to high rise flats in the cities where they are unable to find work

- Many people continue to eat food which is contaminated by radiation

- In Belarus rates of thyroid cancer in children are significantly increased

- Poverty, high rates of unemployment, shortages of medicines, overcrowded living conditions, freezing cold winters and a number of other factors make life for the people of Belarus difficult and uncomfortable

- Children often come from families where there are problems with alcoholism or they are left alone for long hours whilst parents work