Apr 28 2006 – George Tattum, Mold Chronicle
Children releasing balloons for Chernobyl
A CHARITY which provides holidays for young victims of the Chernobyl disaster has enlisted Deeside children to take part in its latest fund-raising campaign.
Pupils from Golftyn Primary School, Connah’s Quay, joined local Chernobyl Children’s Life Line organisers to sell balloons to shoppers in Chester.
Jeanette Jones, of Connah’s Quay, secretary of the charity’s Chester, Deeside and Ellesmere Port Link, said the youngsters were enthusiastic and keen to help the children in Chernobyl.
The charity brings over groups of children from the stricken region and works to raise awareness of their plight.
‘You can really notice the difference when they have been over here on holiday. We try to give them an experience of a lifetime,’ said Jeanette.
Golftyn Junior School has already raised £625 for the charity by selling cakes and organising an Easter chick hunt and cross county run.
Now children have been buying balloons which were released in Chester on Wednesday and a £50 prize is on offer to the person whose balloon travels the furthest. For information call 01244 818940.
Chernobyl fundraiser bears fruit at two Harrogate schools
SIXTH formers in Harrogate went bananas this week when they raised money to help children from Chernobyl who visit the town each year.
St Aidan’s and St John Fisher’s organised the two-day sale, which is expected to drum up more than £300 and made £200 on the first day alone.
Funds will be donated to the Chernobyl Children’s Life Line – a charity that arranges annual visits to the region for youngsters living in the shadow of the biggest ever nuclear disaster, which happened 20 years ago this year.
Donated by ASDA, bananas were sold because the Chernobyl children always relish Britain’s fresh fruit and vegetables when they visit Harrogate.
Blast provides important lesson
ON THE 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster on Wednesday, Friends of the Earth Cymru praised First Minister Rhodri Morgan for resisting pressure to support the building of new nuclear power stations in Wales.
The group believes that Chernobyl should act as a warning against the building of any nuclear power stations.
On the night of April 26, 1986, a nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power station in present-day Ukraine went out of control and exploded, releasing 100 times more radiation than the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
It took until May 6 to bring the fire and radioactive emissions under control. While the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia bore the brunt of the emissions, radiation also spread over large parts of Scandinavia, central Europe and the UK.
Due to meat contamination levels exceeding safety limits, almost 9,000 farms in the UK had restrictions placed on the movement and sale of sheep.
Although officials stated that these restrictions would only last a matter of weeks, 359 farms and 176,000 sheep in Wales are still subject to the restrictions 20 years later. Estimates of the deaths that are likely to result from the blast vary from 4,000 to 60,000.
Friends of the Earth Cymru Assembly campaigner Gordon James said: ‘An important lesson to be learned from the Chernobyl disaster is that when nuclear power plants go wrong they can go wrong in big and unexpected ways.
‘Twenty years on it is now time to put an end to nuclear power once and for all.’
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