BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/10/2008

Families fight Belarus travel ban

By Georgina Brennan

The Chernobyl Children's Project has announced, that despite a ban on Belarusian children travelling internationally, they are expecting the ban to be lifted and are seeking host families for 2009.

Their summer holiday project offers children from Belarus, the opportunity of a holiday away from the debilitating environment in which they live, which was created as a result of a massive explosion at the nuclear power plant in the Ukraine, which released 190 tones of radioactive materials into their environment in 1986. The children, who come to Ireland for a holiday, have been hostage to the hazardous aftermath of radiation, but their month's holiday here, eating good food and breathing clean air, can reduce their radiation levels by between 30-50 per cent.

A meeting between Valery Kurdyukov, Minister Counsellor to the Belarusian Ambassador in London, and Foreign Affairs Minister Michael Martin and officials from the Department of Health & Children in Dublin recently, resulted in agreeing to continue ongoing negotiations to formulate an agreement to allow children from the Chernobyl region to come to Ireland.

The project is hopeful that agreement will be reached and is trying to organize host families now.

To be a host family means taking two children into your home for either two or four weeks and the closing date for applications is September 30.

For further information contact Patsy on 059 9773107 or Estelle on 059 9721939.

Source:

http://www.advertiser.ie/kilkenny/article/2185

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