Chernobyl Children Visit
The Rotary club of Cookstown has for the past 10 years been hosting the children from Chernobyl, giving them a fun day out. This year the children who were hosted by a group of local families, came from a poor rural agricultural area of Chernobyl. Their land is still badly contaminated with the radioactivity from the explosion of the nuclear plant in 1986. As a result of the radioactive pollution the children's immune system against cancer is very low and a high percentage of the young people will suffer from cancer of the Thyroid Gland. Research indicates that if the young people from Chernobyl can be given a holiday away from the pollution, on their return home their immune system is greatly boosted. Statistics show that for each week away in clean air and healthy food their life expectancy is extended by 1 year.
Cookstown Rotary are very proud of the families who open their homes each year to these children and the Rotary Club is glad to play a part in this wonderful project.
The Chernobyl children about to leave Cookstown on their Fun Day with adult hosts and Rotary helpers who made it possible, from left at the back,-Anne Mullan, Maire and Paul O‘Neill, Marie McGeown, Tony McMinn (Cookstown Rotary Club), Alan McMinn, Theresa McKenna, Anne McGuckin and Elma McMinn.
