A convoy of humanitarian aid and aid workers to Chernobyl-affected areas will leave Carlow on Sunday.
The convoy, organised by Chernobyl Children's Project International (CCPI), will take 15 articulated trucks and 13 ambulances, carrying €2.5 million worth of aid, through ten European countries to various orphanages, hospitals and homes throughout Belarus.
The humanitarian and medical aid will include a tablet-making machine, 20,000 toothbrushes, 170,000 nappies, 100 baby buggies, 5,000 pairs of shoes and a wooden playground for one of the orphanages.
The United Nations estimates that up to nine million people have been affected directly or indirectly by the fallout from the explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in northern Ukraine in 1986.
Over 400,000 people have been displaced, and being a Chernobyl survivor has become a social stigma. Survivors find getting work difficult and they and their children are often ill.
Incidences of previously rare conditions such as thyroid cancer and birth defects have rocketed and many thousands of people are still trying to make a living in dangerously contaminated land.
Executive director of CCPI, Adi Roche, said: "This convoy sends a strong message of solidarity, compassion and love to the victims and survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. This convoy represents a lifeline - a lifeline of 3,000 miles - of hope, of real possibility."