Our Programs

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Support us by mail: Send your check to CCPI, 217 East 86 th Street, PMB 275, New York NY 10028. You can designate a program in the memo line on your check.

Support us by telephone: Call I-888-227-8080, and leave a message. We will return your call shortly.

Children's Cardiac Surgical Trips
Nursing and Community Development
- Nursing Programs
- Community Care for disabled children
- Foster Homes
- Ambulance Services
- Building Programs
- Community Centers
In Kind Donations of Medical Equipment and Supplies
Humanitarian Aid
Rest and Recuperation Programs




The period immediately following the Chernobyl disaster – identified by the United Nations as an “emergency relief period” – must now be followed by a period of programs aimed at building and supporting the self-sufficiency of communities and medical professionals in Belarus. Through our partnerships with government agencies, community groups and medical facilities in Belarus, our goal is to provide a "hand up" rather than a "hand out." We do this by working with the people of Belarus to help them overcome the domino effect of poverty, poor health, and social/psychosocial impact that was the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Every program described here needs your ongoing financial support.

Children's Cardiac Surgical Trips CCPI and the International Children's Heart Foundation have announced a 5-year partnership in which CCPI provides financial and logistical support to American cardiac surgeons to enable them to make a minimum of three surgical trips per year to Belarus. The medical trips, led by William Novick, MD, provide surgery for many children deemed inoperable by Belarusian cardiologists. Dr. Novick, a CCPI board member, memorably appears in the film Chernobyl Heart. The program provides state of the art equipment and technology to work and train local physicians.

Today in Belarus, over 7000 children await treatment for cardiac conditions that would be practically routine matters in the United States or Europe. The country's health services are already stretched to the breaking point,  and the waiting list grows by an estimated 800 to 1000 children every year. Without intervention, most of the children will die within three to five years. In contrast to many humanitarian cardiac medical programs, which sponsor a handful of children to travel to the United States for surgery, we are able to save 20 - 30 children on each of these trips. Because our cardiac surgeons travel to the region to perform the surgeries, we were able to reach and save many more lives and, just as importantly, provide much needed training to local physicians.

Childcare and Community Development

Nursing Programs
CCPI staffs, trains, and pays local health professionals to work in understaffed children's institutions in Belarus. A team of professionals travels regularly to Belarus to manage and oversea the program and offer support to their Belarusian counterparts. Beneficiaries of this program in the Vesnova Children's Mental Asylum (depicted in the film Chernobyl Heart). The nursing program is a great investment for two reasons: 1) The program provides an immediate and significant improvement in the quality of life and medical care of the children; 2) The program provides long term hope for the communities in Belarus by providing training and employment for local health care professionals. By working in partnership with Belarusian health professionals, we are helping the citizens of Belarus to help themselves - the key to long term change.

Community Care for Disabled Children
Most physically disabled children in Belarus are placed in institutions simply because their families lack the skills and social supports to care for them at home. Although the Belarusian government has recently starting providing financial incentives for such families to keep their children at home, it is alarming to recognize that many children – now being cared for in their homes – are on waiting lists to be admitted to orphanages and asylums. Many of these parents would care for their children at home if they had the necessary social support. CCPI has developed a pilot program in Minsk in which we identified 25 disabled children at risk of institutionalization. We conducted a needs assessment for child as well as support plan for each individual family (training, equipment, social support, home modification, etc.) We have trained and hired a nurse/therapist to oversee the program and two part time nurse/therapists. We have delivered a wheelchair assessable mini-bus that allows these children and their families to end their isolation, go on outings and receive medical attention. We plan to improve and expand this program over time, keeping more children at home with loving families, where they belong.

CCPI also provides medical equipment to an outpatient clinic for disabled children and children experiencing delays in learning and development. Polyclinic #19 offers parents of disabled children an alternative to institutionalization.

Foster Homes CCPI is committed to programs that offer families alternatives to institutionalizing their children and allow children in orphanages to be integrated into a family setting. These types of programs are only beginning to be explored in Belarus, and we wish to do everything we can to support this objective. In May 2005 we purchased a home for a family who desired to foster 5 children. We will be able to follow this family over time and provide whatever support we can to ensure that this transition goes smoothly and these deserving children have a family for life. The picture depicts a family we are working with in the Starye Norogi village in Belarus. This incredible family has taken in 5 children from an orphanage and have committed to giving them the love, nurturing, and guidance of a family of their own. With your support, we hope to provide more homes in the future.

Building Program
Thousands of Belarusian children live in decrepit, unsanitary and understaffed institutions. Scores of Irish volunteers - plumbers, builders, electricians -- bring institutions closer to humane living standards. We provide this aid while recognizing that institutions are not a viable long term solution for the care of children. This initiative, however, is one of the most immediate and practical ways to improve the quality of life of the most needy of children --  those whose lives are spent in orphanages. Building projects are underway in Vesnova, Kletsk, and Novinki, supervised by teams of voluntary skilled Irish trademen and women.

Critical Care Ambulances
Since its establishment, Chernobyl Children's Project International has built and maintained a fleet of over 140 ambulances in Belarus and Western Russian. The ambulances work in tandem with orphanages and hospitals to ensure that children in the most remote areas can have access to proper medical care. CCPI has purchased and fully outfitted the first pediatric cardiac critical care ambulance for Children's Hospital Number #1 in Minsk, to bring critically ill babies to Minsk for treatment. Under supervision of an expert Irish team that travels to Belarus regularly, we ensure that vehicles are serviced, maintained, and accounted for.

Community Centers
A key goal for CCPI is to develop local programs throughout Chernobyl effected regions that enable communities to look to the future with renewed hope. A flag ship program is the redevelopment of the Zhytkovichi Day Care Center in the Gomel Region of southern Belarus, a provider of a wide range of social and community services to the most disadvantaged in the region. The Center offers advice services, child care facilities, services to the disabled, temporary housing for children in crisis, and various social supports to families. A large renovation project, which will allow the Center to deliver new and improved services to their community, was completed in May 2005. The project has received significant funding from the Irish government, and from Pfizer Company, as well as from CCPI supporters. Our hope is that this will become a model initiative, as we believe that helping communties help themselves is key to long term change in Chernobyl effected regions.   

In Kind Donations of Medical Equipment and Supplies
CCPI works closely with the pharmaceutical and medical supplies industry to locate donated and at-cost medical equipment and disposables for hospitals in Belarus. For instance, in partnership with Seimans Medical Corporation, CCPI supplies ultrasound equipment and grants for training of Belarusian doctors in the Gomel Regional Hospital. Currently, there is a limited ability to screen for birth defects among this high-risk population. Integra Corporation recently donated previously unavailable surgical stents that will save the lives of children who suffer from hydroencephally, a painful and fatal condition that causes fluid build up in the skull.

Humanitarian Aid
CCPI directs a portion of our funding for the purchase and transportation of humanitarian aid in an annual convoy that travels from Ireland on a 3,000 mile journey to Belarus and Western Russia. These convoys have provided over $60 million dollars in aid to the children of Belarus.

The convoys consist of several trucks and ambulances and dozens of volunteers who travel through 10 countries before reaching their final destination -- where they deliver the aid directly into the hands of the people who need it most. Each convoy is the result of many months of hard work by thousands of volunteers and school children across Ireland, who spend months fundraising to stock the convoy.   

Rest and Recuperation
To date, over 11,000 children from contaminated zones in Belarus and Western Russia have been brought to Ireland for recuperative summer and Christmas holidays. This program, started in 1991, provides the children respite during the most dangerous time of the year -- the summer -- when the intense heat contributes to the spread of radioactive material. These children show, upon examination, a drop in their radiation levels between 30-50%. Bringing these children to Ireland takes advantage of Ireland's well-established family volunteer network, and is cost-effective compared to bringing children into the United States.

Chernobyl Children's Project International supports travel of seriously ill children and their families to Ireland for a stay at Paul Newman's "Hole in the Wall" camp at Barrettstown in Ireland. The camp provides medically supervised care and fun activities for kids with cancer and other serious illness. In August 2005, we will bring 30 children from contaminated regions to the camp.