The Children of Chernobyl

Adi Roche's involvement with Chernobyl led right into the 'purple zone' itself, which on 26 April 1986 became the most radioactive place on earth. The radioactivity was ninety times the level of the Hiroshima bomb and will remain harmful for at least a thousand years. Countless villages lie suddenly abandoned, their occupants now permanent refugees in their own country. 170, 000 children under seven received doses high enough to cause thyroid cancer. In 1991 the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (ICND) and the Cork Youth Association responded to a call by American and Belorussian doctors to receive sixty children from Chernobyl for rest and healing in Ireland. Many more were to follow. The Chernobyl Children's Project was formed in association with Irish CND and soon Adi Roche, the Project workers and volunteers began to organise convoys to the contaminated areas of Belarus, the country which received over 70% of the radioactive fallout. These convoys brought urgently needed medical aid. The value of the shipments to date exceeds the aid given by the United Nations. (hil»&cn op (HrMnotyL is Adi Roche's vivid and shocking account of the 1986 disaster and its aftermath. Although its conclusions are depressing and contrast strongly with the claims of the nuclear industry, the book also records the efforts of individuals offering hope to live and the hand of friendship to the embattled people of Belarus, Western Russia and the Ukraine.