More than 1,000 children from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone will fly into Ireland today for the annual summer holiday scheme.
The project, now in its 17th year, allows children living in a contaminated Belarus region a break away from an environment that was damaged by events at the nuclear plant in Ukraine.
Hundreds of Irish families look after the young visitors for the duration of the holidays, up to three months long.
Adi Roche, chief executive of Chernobyl Children’s Project International (CCPI), which runs the scheme, said: “We are very proud to say that this year we will see over 1,000 children receive recuperation through the warmth and loving kindness of hundreds of Irish families."
Many of the children come from deprived and isolated, rural areas of Belarus, and the holiday provides them with respite from the high levels of radiation they are exposed to decades after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor explosion.
The summer is particularly dangerous for people living in the region because the intense heat contributes to the redistribution of radioactive materials, according to the CCPI.
PA