StudentAID Chernobyl is a unique humanitarian organisation. It has been in existence since 2000 and it asks every third level college on the island of Ireland to raise funds and offer humanitarian assistance in post-Chernobyl Belarus. We fund hospitals, orphanages, hospices and other projects  including United Nations Development Programme Belarus. However, we see ourselves as more than a funding organisation. We endeavour to engage at a meaningful level with the people of Belarus. We spend a lot of time listening and learning how best to respond to the needs of the people.  Young people from throughout the island of Ireland have been making a difference in Belarus.

About Belarus

Belarus is south of Lithuania, East of Poland and west of Russia. It is north of Ukraine. The capital Minsk is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. It was completely destroyed in World War 2 (known as The Great Patriotic War in Belarus). Its unfortunate location meant that the country was devastated by the German armies on their way to attack Moscow and Stalingrad. When the Germans started to retreat the country was devastated yet again. One in three Belarussians were killed. Belarus's geographic location led to another catastrophe more recently. In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor exploded just across the border from Belarus in Ukraine. Due to wind direction the cloud of nuclear contamination moved over the land, cities and people of Belarus. About 70% of the radioactive material landed on Belarussian soil, making it the worst environmental disaster in mankind's history.

Chernobyl is largely forgotten by the world. However the results of the nuclear accident are very much in evidence. Huge areas of Belarus are too radioactive to live in. The Contaminated (or Purple Zone) as it is called has deserted towns, villages, farms and houses. All the people have been relocated. Students can visit the contaminated Zone briefly. Its possible to see mounds of earth where bulldozers covered over the houses. Ironically, in some deserted towns and villages, the only evidence that there was once human life there, are the graveyards.