Home The Chernobyl disaster Chernobyl Children Lifeline Totnes and Ivybridge Link How you can help Gallery Get in touch with the link Further resources With thanks Members area Site map	Belarus will suffer the effects of radiation fallout for hundreds of years. People who live here have no choice but to work on contaminated land and grow and eat contaminated food.  Medical experts estimate that the problems are so severe that just a month away from their usual environment will allow a child's immune system to recover enough to give them, on average, an extra two years life expectancy.  Chernobyl Children Lifeline believes that we should offer this opportunity to as many children as possible, and works through a network of semi-independent 'links' throughout the UK doing just that.   Thanks to CCLL, some 40,000 children from Belarus have visited Britain since 1992.  Many of the families keep in touch with the children and some invite them for return visits each year. The children always receive basic medical attention here including dental care and an eye examination. The charity pays for the travel costs of the first visit, from then on the host family pays if they want the same child to return.  No-one in the CCLL links gets paid for their involvement - host families, doctors, dentists, opticians, fundraisers . . . everyone gives their time and energy for free. CCLL has no particular religious or political affiliation - members come from all ages and stages of life and we hope to reflect this locally by evolving a diverse and egalitarian link.  Please visit the Totnes and Ivybridge link page to find out more about CCLL on a local level.