The Truth

You may recall in April 1986 under the former soviet government, a dreadful nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl plant in Northern Ukraine. A reactor overheated and exploded, causing a major fire sending deadly radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere, 70% of which fell on to Belarus.

Thousands of local residents together with firemen, scientists, police, army personnel and plant workers died In the subsequent weeks, months and years, through Chernobyl related illnesses. Evacuation of the area and closure of the plant has failed to prevent the continuing calamity of Chernobyl, which will go on claiming lives and creating problems for residents of Belarus for hundreds of years to come.

The clean-up operation cost $18 bn. It has been calculated by Gorbachev, the then President of the USSR that 300,000 children are currently suffering from the effects of Chernobyl.

The complete history of the disaster can be read here on Wikipedia.

The Effects

In Belarus, in the Gomel region particularly, there is a condition known as 'Chernobyl Heart' which causes the deaths of many children. It could be treated in the West.

There is also a condition in adults, mostly among people who lived in the higher radiation levels in Belarus and northern Ukraine called 'chernobyl syndrome'. They suffer from heart, stomach, liver, kidney and nervous system problems. Many are disabled and unable to work and when their life comes to an end it will be due to 'natural causes'. 

Since 1986 there have been no tests on the many thousands of evacuees from the exclusion zone  or on any of the population in the higher radiation areas throughout south east Belarus where most of the high levels of radiation permeated down to ground level

Some villages outside the exclusion Zone were also evacuated as the radiation level was to high much of the soil in south east Belarus still has extremely high levels of radiation The populations are told not to eat berries or mushrooms as they absorb large quantities of radiation but very few people take any notice of these warnings as they simply do not understand the invisible treat to themselves or their children and they don't see why they cannot carry on with their centuries old traditions

THE LEGACY

25 years on, how does this affect CCIN as a charity working in Belarus?

Our work is concentrated in the Kalinkovichi District, Gomel region. Southern Belarus, which received most of the fallout.

We support directly nearly 400 children and indirectly their families. Over 11 years we have seen the above average amount of deaths caused by the direct or indirect effects of Chernobyl, these may, to a degree be genetic but we cannot prove it.

We are asked how we can tell a cancer is caused by Chernobyl and we have been told that Chernobyl related cancers are categorized by their virulence and difficulty to treat. Whereas cancers in children in the West have an 80% success rate when treated, in Belarus and the north of Ukraine, the cure rate is only 48%. In the case of 'liquidators' (people who worked in the exclusion zone) 25 years on, most are dead or disabled or sick. We have met survivors personally.  In Ozarichi, our agent's husband is one of those.

In the case of the children, many, probably the majority, are sickly because of having a weak immune system which is the common side effect of radiation. They get the radiation through the ingestion of the food they eat, as, although the air is clean, the soil still contaminated.

 CCIN sponsorship pays for the 300 children in the main school to have good school dinners which are sourced outside the area.

Radiation also makes the tooth enamel weak and this, coupled with poor dental hygiene, means many children suffer with sore gums ,tooth loss and pain. CCIN is addressing these issues too with visits from UK dental practitioners and up-to-date equipment with demonstrations.

There are many things, as a small charity that we can't do but we at least know that in what we do, we are making a difference.

On a recent visit to Minsk we visited some of the children's cancer hospitals and saw some very sad cases of children under treatment , some who would survive and some who would not.

We were told that that they can tell which Cancers are linked to Chernobyl simply because of the virulence of certain cancers that are resistant to conventional treatments  and this type of virulence simply did not exist prior to the Chernobyl.

Apparently only 48% of patients with this virulent variation survive compared to over 80% of others.
Unfortunately as it cannot be proved scientifically that any death is caused directly by Chernobyl  , understandably , all deaths are deemed to be natural causes.

CCIN know and see the effects on the health of the children and do what we can to help.