Last updated: 28th December 2011.

Chernobyl Child Aid (CCA) is a charity founded in Ireland by Andy and Joan Cloke in 2004 that works with communities and institutions in areas of Belarus affected by the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

It operates three main programmes:

–    Rest and recuperation.

Bringing children, who are at risk, from Belarus to Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland for a month each summer and winter for some children and two months for others for a period of rest and recuperation. In total the group has brought some 350 children to Ireland under this programme.

–    Construction projects.

The first of these began in November 2007 at Slutsk Orphanage, Minsk Region where extensions were made to the existing laundry building to improve its hygiene and efficiency. This project was completed in April 2008.

In November 2009 our second project started in Ratamka Orphanage, Minsk Region to convert an existing building into a “halfway house” to train the children leaving this orphanage in life skills so they can live in society. This project was completed in October 2011.

–    Food and material aid

Deliveries of food and materials e.g. washing powder to orphanages and other institutions is ongoing and occurs in April and November each year.