Day of Remembrance for the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster

The 26.04.2023 marks the 37th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. At 01:23 on April 26, 1986, radioactive material was released in unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant as a result of a reactor accident. The released material reached Western Europe, but contaminated the surrounding regions the most. To this day, people and the environment in the areas of present-day Belarus, Russia and Ukraine suffer from the consequences of this disaster. In addition to the negative health effects caused by the released radioactivity, the reactor accident also led to social and economic neglect in the regions.

As early as the 1990s, Green Cross Switzerland began to implement aid projects for those affected by these man-made disasters in the three heavily radioactively contaminated countries. For this purpose, the SOCMED program (Social and Medical Care and Education) was established, which offers support on a medical, psychological and social level and focuses on “helping people to help themselves”. For example, therapy camps were organized for children and young people, and medical examinations were carried out by the Green Cross Bus in remote villages.

These assistance services could be guaranteed until 2022, but were severely restricted or terminated for the time being due to the war in Ukraine. In the country of the nuclear disaster, no projects can be implemented in the Chernobyl region at the moment due to the war. Nevertheless, Green Cross Switzerland provided urgently needed humanitarian aid to the population there at the beginning of the war, for example by delivering medicine or food. In addition, preparations are again underway in Belarus for Social Gardening, which will be carried out again in 2023. This project aims to make the diet of children from precarious backgrounds more varied, nutritious and healthy by providing fresh vegetables and fruit from social gardens.

The war in Ukraine also led to a reactivation of what happened in Chernobyl. The occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant from February 24 to March 31 by the Russian army continues to show the dangers to people and the environment posed by the nuclear power plant. Green Cross Switzerland takes the day of the nuclear disaster as an opportunity to remember the victims and those affected by the reactor accident and the war.