CHERNOBYL CHILDREN'S PROJECT (UK)

Chernobyl Children’s Project (UK) took part in the launch meeting of the European Chernobyl Network in Germany in November 2010. This meeting was hosted by IBB, a German organisation which has many educational and social projects in Belarus. Taking part were charities from Spain, Holland, Austria, France, Ireland and UK as well as a number of German organisations.

This is the Mission Statement of the Network:

The European Chernobyl Network is a platform of cooperation for like-minded organisations working on the Chernobyl issue. We welcome all organisations working to improve the lives of those living in the Chernobyl-affected regions to join us.

Working together,organisations can be stronger, more effective and can achieve real, sustainable, long-term change.

Our objectives are to:

• Keep the Chernobyl Disaster alive in the public consciousness, and to raise awareness about its ongoing health, social and environmental impact.
• Provide a forum for organisations to share information, ideas and resources.
• Encourage organisations to work together where this is appropriate to maximise the effectiveness of their initiatives.
• On occasion to enable organisations to come together and speak with one voice on issues of great importance to our work.

For the 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl in 2011 charities across Europe staged candlelight vigils, held exhibitions and organised meetings at which liquidators spoke (liquidators are the people who were involved in fighting the fire at Chernobyl, mitigating the effects of the disaster and then cleaning up afterwards)

This year for the 26th Anniversary IBB funded liquidators to come again and speak in a number of countries including the UK, where their tour was organised by Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline.

CCP(UK) Director Linda Walker is currently facilitating the Co-ordination Committee for the European Chernobyl Network. We hope to be involved in persuading many more charities to join ECN and eventually to have a system on the website which will enable organisations to see how and where they might work most effectively on joint initiatives.