News Archive
The Greater Chernobyl Cause and its work has featured prominently in both regional, national and international publications over recent years.
THE GREATER CHERNOBYL CAUSE
Unit 4 Southside Industrial Est Pouladuf Rd Togher Cork
PH +353 21 4323276 Mob +353 87 9536133
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)website: greaterchernobylcause.ie
TOP HUMANITARIAN AWARD FOR IRISH CHARITY FOUNDER
A Cork charity worker who has devoted the past 17 years to helping thousands of seriously ill children in the wake of the world’s worst nuclear disaster is to received one of Europe’s top humanitarian awards.
At the express wish of the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, his country’s Ambassador to Ireland, Sergii Reva, presented The Order of Princess Olga to Fiona Corcoran, the leader and founder of The Greater Chernobyl Cause.
The Order is a very rare Ukranian civil decoration featuring the 10th Century Kiev Saint and is bestowed only to women for outstanding personal achievements in science, education or charity work.
It is unknown for the award to be presented to a foreigner and Fiona says she was stunned when told of the President’s decree. She says she will be accepting the medal on behalf of all those who have worked with the charity over so many years.
“That work must continue.” Ms Corcoran insists. “A new generation now require our help, so I am appealing once gain to the Irish tradition of spontaneous giving, even in these hard economic times here at home. Our main emphasis is on providing help and life-saving medical equipment for the long term victims of the Chernobyl disaster and the growing number of children who are being diagnosed with cancer, leukaemia and acute respiratory infections.”
Many of those in urgent need of help live in highly contaminated areas on the edge of the exclusion zone. Amongst many projects the Greater Chernobyl Cause is supporting a clinic in the city of Malin where paediatrician Victoria Bakhlanova says that every third child now has anaemia, low haemoglobin or some other form of immunodeficiency. The charity is also involved with a children’s rehabilitation centre and has been donating vital medical equipment to the radiological hospital in Kiev where many children are awaiting operations.
The disaster which resulted from a reckless safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant led to a huge explosion at Reactor No4 which spewed a cloud of radioactive fallout over much of Northern Europe. The explosion released 400 times more radiation than the US atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima.
Earlier this year, the UN’s World Health Organisation said that among the 600,000 people most heavily exposed to radiation, 4,000 more cancer deaths than average are expected to be found at some stage. Thousands of children developed thyroid cancer and other health problems but exactly how many people died is still the subject of debate.
To compound matters thousand of homeless children are either living or begging on the streets of Ukraine … with more than a quarter of them in Kiev. Some colonize the wasteland beyond the city’s main railway station and cling to the pipes that carry the hot water through this industrial wilderness.
GCC are also in the rescue business. Far from restricting its activities to helping on the streets, the charity is assisting in providing education, a home and long-term rehabilitation for these forgotten children’
Whilst thanking the Irish people for their support over the past two decades, Ms Corcoran pleads “if you haven’t considering making a financial donation before then I would urge you to do so now so that more young lives can be saved.”
The Greater Chernobyl Cause can be contacted at Unit 4, Southside Industrial Estate, Pouladuff Road, Togher, Cork.TELEPHONE N0: 021 4323276 MOBILE NO: 087 9536133 / 0872270126
E-MAIL ADDRESS: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)WEBSITE: http://www.greaterchernobylcause.ie
