The Virtual Foundation - your donation makes it happen

Reducing Children's Exposure to Chernobyl Radiation

Region: Belarus, Central and Eastern Europe
Author: NGO Centre Action, Gomel region, Belarus
Consortium Member: Brest Environmental Information Center
Status: Funded and Ongoing Budget: $1089 Collected: $1089 Needs: $0
Result: to reduce exposure to radiation, by training the local population to monitor their exposure and to act on this information
Donors: Upper Mohawk Valley Model United Nations Conference at Hamilton College, New York State [February 2003, December 2005]
Comment: A United Nations report, "The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident - A Strategy for Recovery" calls for international attention and action to empower people living in the affected communities.

Explanation

The Chernobyl disaster is an on-going trauma, and the psychological consequences are severe. Therefore it is necessary to lift a psychological block, or ‘victim mentality’, from many in the contaminated areas. Active participation in community life is natural, important and therapeutic for both children and adults. Community as a whole has suffered, due to the Chernobyl disaster. One teacher said that "We should get people who want change together. We can then develop hope and spread it around." Self-help and advocacy are elements in community building.

Objectives of the project

• to reduce health risk for schoolchildren which is caused by exposure to radiation;
• to organize the radiological control and radiometric monitoring of the food stuffs and production of agriculture in specific settlements;
• to eliminate the most contaminated food and reveal contaminated areas in each village;
• to implement educational programs in schools on radio-ecology and safety measures;
• to create in each school a database on levels of contamination of food stuffs and other natural objects in the territories, contaminated by radio-nuclides.

Description of the problem

The Province of Gomel is contaminated with radiation as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. The main contaminants, Caesium 137 and Strontium 90, released into the atmosphere from the ruptured Chernobyl reactor and came down on Belarus, will take some 600 years to decay. Radioactive atoms are entering food chains. The internal exposure from radioactive nuclei that enter the body through foodstuffs is nine times more dangerous than external exposure. Often the levels of radioactive substances in children of high schools tested were many times higher than internationally allowable levels.

To reduce their exposure to radiation significantly, schoolchildren and everyone else need to be taught about the danger, and be motivated to avoid them. They must be educated in the effects of radioactivity in their surroundings, and learn the rules for living safely. It is important to teach people the steps that can be taken to reduce the dangers. Learning and education in a community can be seen as a useful and invigorating tool. People can learn its advantages and how to make use of it as an impulse toward safer living and a factor in social action, and change for the better. Also information can have a calming effect and can lead to the right solutions.

Description of expected outcome

The main outcome of the project will be to decrease significantly the levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in the bodies of schoolchildren living in the zone of Chernobyl contamination.

The International Committee for Radiation Protection considers that there is a linear dependence between the dose of irradiation and the risk of cancer or other diseases. In other words, if the child has a lower level of radioactive substances in his or her body, his or her risk of disease will be lower as well.

Methods of implementation

• Carrying out measurements of levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in the bodies of schoolchildren (in cooperation with the Institute of Radiation Safety ‘BelRad’ (Minsk);
• Implementation of health measures (use of sorbents binding radio-nuclides in an organism);
• Implementation of measures having an enlightening character, including lectures and consultation on a radiation safety and radio-ecology;
• Granting to school collectives popular literature on radio-ecology and safety measures ("The Basic Radioecology: theory and practice", a book written for schools and the public by physicists, biologists, radiologists and forest scientists);
• Granting dosimeters to school collectives.
• Choice of towns for this project: There are five selected towns, each with a school and located in contaminated regions. We would like to start with the most isolated town first, document our work and results, and then proceed to work in the four other towns. The towns are:
  1. Grebeni, in Leltchitsy district;
  2. Dobryn, in Elsk district;
  3. Yurovichi, in Kalinkovichi district;
  4. Glinishcha, in Khoiniki district;
  5. Narowla, in Narowla district.

Duration of the project - five months in each town

First month - Granting to the school popular literature on radioecology and safety measures and dosimeters. Training the teachers to use dosimeters. Radiometric tests of food.

Second month - Carrying out initial tests to measure the levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in the bodies of schoolchildren. Discussion of the results obtained in schools.

Third month - Carrying out lectures and providing consultations on safety measures and radioecology. Implementation of health measures.

Fourth month - Carrying out the second round of tests to measure levels of accumulation of radio-nuclides in organisms of schoolchildren. Discussions of the results.

Fifth month - Discussion of the results obtained with the help of dosimeters. Creating in each school a database on levels of contamination of foodstuffs and other natural objects in the territories, contaminated by radio-nuclides.

Information about our organization

Centre Action is a non-profit organization with educational and ecological aims. Its main goals are:

• to run a program of events for people living in the areas that were contaminated by the fall-out from Chernobyl in order to increase their awareness of the dangers and to know how to minimize them;
• to make the inhabitants of these areas aware of their rights and their opportunities to live productive and healthy lives.

Budget for the town of Grebeni, located in Leltchitsy district

Tests of the contamination levels of bodies (over 100 schoolchildren in the town school)TD>	$696
Purchase of one dosimeter ($50)	$50
Publication of booklets; development and distribution of teaching materials (50 copies x $1)	$50
Communication expenses (e-mail, fax, phone)	$10
Printing, copying, scanning	$10
Travelling cost (5 visits to the school, @ $15/ visit)	$75
Coordinator's fee	$15
Lecturer's fee	$50
Assistant fee ($34)	$34
VF Administrative Cost (10 %)	$99
TOTAL Requested	$1089

Note: This is the budget for one town. To carry out the project in all five towns would cost a total of $5445. We are prepared to implement our work in all five towns, but understand that it is easier to raise the money for one town at a time. Thank you for your consideration of our project.

Note from the Virtual Foundation Program Manager: Now, fifteen years after the accident, a United Nations report, "The Human Consequences of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident - A Strategy for Recovery", is calling for international attention to the affected region. For more information, see "UN Chernobyl Expert Travels to the US" in our Funded Projects section.

* About the VF Administrative Cost: this is a contribution toward support services provided by the Consortium Members (local partners) and Virtual Foundation staff that make these projects a reality: bank transfer fees, e-mail access charges, translation of proposals and reports into English, etc.