26th April 1986 will be forever etched in the collective memory of the Belarus people. On that day on the border between Ukraine and Belarus an explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant threw tons of radioactive materials into the air, sending them all directions. 70% of the radio-active substances fell over Belarus . A quarter of the country's best farmlands and forest were poisoned and hundreds of towns and villages were evacuated. The entire country is a zone of international ecological disaster. Radiation released by the accident was 300 times greater than the Hiroshima bomb.

Unlike other ecological disasters it is not a case of rebuilding or coping with the immediate health problems and delivering aid in the short term. In Belarus , the ramifications have been more in-grained and enduring. There has been an unprecendented rise in the incidence of cancers, particularly amongst children, and birth defects. The long-term effects of such chronic exposure to low level radiation which will only become evident as time goes by. World Health Organisation statistics put the number of ‘healthy' children in Belarus as 10% of those under 18 years. Compounding the problems, Belarus ' population is declining. Cancer is one reason, but many young couples are choosing not to have families because of the serious health risks to their children.