About Us
The Greater Chernobyl Cause is based in Cork, Ireland.
Ukrainians are suffering this very moment from the effects of Russian violence. That violence targets innocent civilians and society’s most vulnerable people, these people are no different from you or me. The violence destroys homes, hospitals and countless lives. It tears families apart and sends many into exile – millions of people being forced to leave their homes.
But Ukraine is resilient and they continue to be strong and fight for their nation’s survival and for the right to dictate their own future. They need your support to overcome a brutal enemy that does not share the same values as Ukrainians – or Irish.
The Greater Chernobyl Cause has been helping people for over two decades and is the Irish organisation best placed to provide humanitarian support since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Nearly two year later, Ukraine continues to defend its territory and provides civilians with the support needed to rebuild lives and livelihoods.
Your support – and the support of the wider Irish community – has been critical to that success, however more needs to be done. The support you give to Ukraine will help to save lives and rebuild communities. Your generosity will buy food, clothing and medicine, help to build shelter, provide medical and mental health assistance and ensure that millions of displaced men, women and children can live in safety and dignity.
WE STAND WITH UKRAINE
The charitys head, Fiona Corcoran , was deeply moved when the worlds worst nuclear disaster occurred at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. An enthusiastic follower of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, she was shocked and horrified by the consequences of the explosion so much so, that she eventually gave up her job to work full-time with the victims of the poisonous radioactive fallout.
The Greater Chernobyl Cause began as a response to the world's worst nuclear disaster but has now widened its mission to concentrate on the human casualties of the break-up of the former Soviet Union.Nowhere more so than in Kazakhstan where those who survived early life in a city orphanage faced the horrific prospect of being transferred hundreds of miles to a squalid and disease-ridden institution in Ayagus. For some, it amounted to a sentence of death.
Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world. The similarities with the Chernobyl disaster are startling. It was here that the Soviet Union exploded 500 nuclear weapons in a hand-picked test site over a period of 40 years.
The results of the charity’s efforts are equally startling – new and refurbished orphanages and hospices, vital domestic appliances and medical equipment that most of us take for granted, shelter for vulnerable street children and for some, even the possibility of adoption.
Under the overall management of a Board of Directors with Fiona Corcoran at the helm, the charity draws volunteers from every sector of Irish life, from the Cork Fire Brigade and local businesses to enthusiastic schoolchildren. However, such is the scale of the challenge that the charity is always looking for new supporters.
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Board of Directors
• Patrick McGrath, Chairman
• Michael O Sullivan,Non Executive
• Victor Shine
Charity Founders
• Patrick McGrath
• Fiona Corcoran
Film Production Team
• Brian Staveley
Producer/Director and Camera
• Bill Hamilton, Presenter
• Jon Bagge, Film Editor