The lack of a containment building caused a plume of radioactive fallout, releasing more than four hundred times more radiation that the atomic bomb of Hiroshima, spreading over parts of the Soviet Union, Eastern and Western Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles and as far as the eastern coast of the United States.

For the last twenty years, the now independent countries of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus have been crippled with the continuing costs of decontamination and health care that have arisen in the wake of the disaster. In the immediate aftermath, Soviet authorities started evacuating people from the area around the Chernobyl reactor and by May 1986, a 30-kilometre 'zone of alienation' had been created, causing the relocation of more than 116,000 people. Following the need to relocate families and children for health and clean living purposes, there have been a number of children who have had to endure being separated from their family, been orphaned or in some cases, have been abandoned. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been directly affected, and the long-term effects are likely to last for generations to come.

As children are the innocent victims of such incidents, World Scouting has successfully carried out programs to support the children of Chernobyl through holiday camps, health care, and counseling. Today is an opportunity to draw attention to the commitment World Scouting has made to the children of Chernobyl and the efforts that have been made to give them happier and healthier lives.

One of the more recent projects saw a group of UK Scouts undertaking humanitarian work in Belarus. A vanload of humanitarian aid including clothes, educational materials, sports and games equipment and tools was driven across the country and distributed amongst the community.

It is the mission and responsibility of World Scouting to help those who are already experiencing the consequences of this disaster; which not only remains close in our memories but is still an active issue. We need to help educate future generations to avoid such a tragedy from happening again to protect not only the environment, but also the young people of today and tomorrow.