Joyful scenes as hosts greet Chernobyl children

CHRISTMAS celebrations began in earnest in dozens of Irish homes yesterday when a group of Chernobyl children arrived to spend the holidays with host families.

Sixty youngsters from Belarus aged seven and upwards will spend the next two-and-a-half weeks in Ireland, reuniting with friends, catching up on vital medical care and being immersed in hugs and love from their “Irish parents”.

The children, whose trip has been organised by Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International charity, are all orphaned, abandoned or from impoverished homes in the Gomel and Mogilev regions of Belarus, which bore the brunt of the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 25 years ago.