Over 1,000 children from the nuclear-affected Chernobyl region in Eastern Europe are arriving in Ireland this week for summer holiday breaks.
The children will stay with several hundred Irish families, allowing them to spend time away from their radiation-contaminated homeland.
The children are being brought to Ireland by the Chernobyl Children's Project's Rest & Recuperation Programme.
The Rest & Recuperation Programme was established to offer children from the regions contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear explosion a vital break away from this unhealthy and dangerous environment.
Many of the children making the trip live in orphanages in Belarus while the remainder of the children come from extremely impoverished family backgrounds. The children range in age from 7 to 16.