BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

4:11pm Friday 22nd July 2005

City charity welcomes nuclear disaster victims

By Alex Lewis

A GROUP of children whose lives have been blighted by the Chernobyl disaster visited St Albans' Earthworks environmental charity on Friday last week.

Sixteen children from Mogilev in Belarus, a city directly in the path of radiation from the stricken nuclear power station, spent the day at the charity's base in Hixberry Lane.

All are from extremely poor backgrounds, some are suffering from symptoms linked to the 1986 disaster, and many have lost parents.

They are staying in Hertfordshire for a month on a visit organised by the charity Friends of Chernobyl.

The same children, aged between seven and 13, visit every year, staying with local families.

Organiser Chris Sycamore explained: "A month a year with clean food and clean air can increase their lives by two years."

Although none of the children was born when the power station, just over the Ukrainian border from Mogilev, exploded in flames, all are affected through the air they breath and the food they eat.

Even their milk is contaminated as local cows have fed on irradiated grass.

While in Hertfordshire they are given health-care, education at local schools, and days out, but also time to bond with the families who host them, often establishing lasting relationships.

Doctors in Mogilev have told the Friends of Chernobyl that the children lucky enough to come on the trips are notably healthier in the long-term than others from the area, who show high rates of cancer and other diseases.

At Earthworks, they helped with activities like paper making, bird-box making and gardening.

Friends of Chernobyl (Hertfordshire) can be contacted on 01707 888122.

Source:

http://www.stalbansobserver.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.616622.0.city_charity_welcomes_nuclear_disaster_victims.php

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