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	Chernobyl Children's Lifeline - CCLL - was established in 1992 in response to the terrible nuclear accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine, described by the United Nations as 'the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of humanity'.  On April 26, 1986 at 1.23am, technicians at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station in the Ukraine allowed the power in the fourth reactor to fall as part of a controlled experiment. To carry out their tests, they deactivated several major safety systems that would have shut down the reactor in case of accident. The experiment went wrong. Two explosions blew the top off the reactor building and a fire started in the core which burned for several days. A cloud of deadly radio activity dispersed into the surrounding environment. This silent killer continued to pour from the damaged reactor for ten days. Formally a part of the USSR, Belarus is an independent country bordered by Poland, Lithuania, Russia and the Ukraine.  The country covers some 207,600 sq km and has a population of 9.8 million. Twenty percent of the population live in the capital, Minsk.  As a result of strong winds blowing in the period immediately after the accident, 70% of the fallout landed in Belarus and this quickly became the most contaminated area.  As a result of the Chernobyl disaster, the people of Belarus have been plagued by ill health, economic problems and cancer.  It is suggested that growing children suffer the most, with a massive increase in leukaemia, thyroid cancer and illnesses related to weakened immune systems.   Belarus used to be a major supplier of food to the Soviet Union but now, with extensive areas of contamination from the Chernobyl disaster, it has difficulty selling even the un-contaminated food. With the deprivation of such a large proportion of its income, the country has huge economic problems. In the 3 years following the Chernobyl disaster 100 000 people, many simple farmers, were re-housed from the radiation hot spots. Fifty-five thousand ended up in purpose-built high rise apartments in Minsk. It was essential to move people away from the contaminated areas, but no one foresaw the social implications of doing so - no land, no jobs and nothing to give people any sort of purpose.  Out in the country the situation is even worse; most villages don't have running water, instead depending on wells for their supply, and even some of these are frozen during the long, hard, winter months.  The people live with radiation all around them. They drink contaminated water and wash in it. There is very little food and what there is has a high chance of being contaminated - many people are close to starvation with only boiled potatoes to eat.  Life is tough in Belarus; jobs and land are difficult to come by and inflation is out of control. The average weekly income is under £10. Almost a quarter of the population live below the poverty line.