Irish charity helps 300 children in foster care in Belarus

The Lord Mayor of Cork Chris O’Leary has seen how an Irish charity has pioneered a new foster-care model which has saved 300 vulnerable Belarussian children from a life in bleak state-run orphanages.

Mr O’Leary led an Irish civic delegation to visit one of the Chernobyl Children International’s new Homes of Hope in the Glusk region of Belarus, south of Minsk during his delegation’s week-long visit to Belarus and the Ukraine ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Irina and Dima, who having raised four of their own children are now caring for 12 foster children aged six to 16, showed the delegation around their house.