What We Do

What we do

"If our tears do not lead us to act then we have lost the reason of our humanity, which is compassion." (Dalai Lama)

Since its establishment in 1991, Chernobyl Children’s Project International (CCPI) has delivered over €70 million in direct and indirect humanitarian aid to the Chernobyl region. CCPI aims to restore hope to the people of the Chernobyl-affected region. We continue to deliver relevant projects and programmes by maintaining strong links with many international and Belarusian agencies and organisations and by then adapting and changing the work that we do according to the changing needs of the children, the adults and the communities we work with. This process of ongoing communication informs all of the work we do and allows us to closely monitor and evaluate our programme and project delivery.

The Project manages and operates its projects across the following key programme areas:

• Medical Programme

• Rest & Recuperation

• 'Aid Direct'

• Sustainable/Building

• Cardiac Programme

• De-institutionalisation

• 'Homes of Hope'

• Hospice & Community

CCPI also undertakes Education and Awareness-raising Programmes with schools throughout Ireland. Adi Roche will often visit schools in person, outlining the many programme areas of CCPI as well as educating students on the impact of one of the worst nuclear disaster known to mankind.

CCPI has extensive Research Material on the Chernobyl Disaster. Please contact the office with any questions or queries or visit the Schools/Eduction area of our website for further information and FAQs about the Chernobyl Disaster. Email: info@chernobyl-ireland.com

Historical Background

After the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, and the break up of the former Soviet Union, the economy of Belarus went into steep decline. This resulted in serious social problems, many of which are associated with the breakdown of family units and communities. Other social ills such as alcoholism, crisis pregnancies and abuse are also widespread. All this has resulted in children being placed in state-run orphanages because of the inability of families and communities to support them. These children are not orphans in the traditional sense; they are in fact economic victims of circumstance.

Against this backdrop CCPI began its long-term commitment, contribution and support to providing both practical and innovative programmes that are aimed at alleviating human suffering.

It wishes to effect real change in the Chernobyl-affected areas while harnessing the unique spirit of volunteerism that permeates every level of the organisation.

CCPI develops, facilitates and effects long-term sustainable community-based solutions, providing effective principled humanitarian assistance while advocating for the rights of the victims and survivors of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster. 

How Chernobyl Children's Project International began

“SOS appeal. For god’s sake, help us to get the children out.”

This desperate appeal made by Belarusian and Ukrainian doctors was sent in a fax and received by Cork Nuclear Disarmament volunteer Adi Roche in January 1991. The fax was simple and to the point, it simply begged for the children to be taken away from their radioactive environment so that their bodies had some chance of recovery.

Little did Adi Roche imagine how her life would change after she received this fax, how immersed and intertwined she would become with the Chernobyl story. Her response was immediate and that following summer she coordinated and organised the first group of Chernobyl children to arrive in Ireland for recuperative holidays and CCPI was founded in an effort to help alleviate the suffering and to offer hope to those most affected by the Chernobyl explosion, namely the children of Belarus, Western Russia and the Ukraine.

What had started out as purely a response to children in crisis in the back bedroom of Adi's house went on to be a tour de force, developing comprehensive aid programmes right across the spectrum and resulting in sustainable development projects that make a real and lasting difference.

Since its establishment in 1991 CCPI has gone from strength to strength and has given over 15,000 children recuperative holidays in Ireland. Research has shown that each child taken from their radioactive environment to Ireland is ‘returned’ two years of life. To date, the project has sent more than €70 million worth of direct and indirect humanitarian and medical aid to the Chernobyl region.

CCPI is recognised internationally as the largest global contributor to Belarus and is deeply respected at all levels in the country. The charity was awarded official NGO status by the UN in 2004 and it is the only charity working in the Chernobyl area that has been granted this status. The charity is registered in Ireland, the UK, Belarus and the USA. There is a fulltime resource of six personnel in Ireland, four administrative personnel and sixteen professional medical staff in Belarus, supported by an international volunteer force of over 8,000. The ability to effect change at so many levels in the political arena in Belarus is testament to the efficiency of its organisational and administrative capability. 

New Directions

Through a lot of soul-searching after 2001, CCPI chose a whole new approach, moving away from an old-style donor versus recipient model to one that is about partnership, giving people a say in how they want their dying communities to come to life. Many voices were brought to the table, including Irish Aid, the International Red Cross and many other partners. We also brought the voices of Chernobyl, the directors, the community leaders and with one voice we know our efforts and resources are best channelled into areas that foster a culture of self-help. People's needs have changed. We have moved away from the delivery of humanitarian ad medical aid via traditional convoy to our new 'Aid Direct' programme. Our new vision has evolved to meet new needs. We began a process of de-institutionalising children and investing in 'Homes of Hope', Community Care, Hospice Care, Day Care Centres and community development. With our new 'Aid Direct' programme we know that we are making our work even more relevant to what people want and need.

Along with direct humanitarian intervention programmes, we also work   closely with the scientific community in Belarus on radio-ecological   education and implementation. We fund the work of Professor Vasily Nesterenko of the Belarusian Institute of Radiation Safety through the purchase of Mobile Radiation Monitoring units which carry teams of scientists and their equipment throughout the contaminated zones checking the levels of radiation in both children and foodstuffs.