THE children were beautiful but they had a haunted look. It would have taken massive indifference to see them and not be changed somehow.
Many people had seen the arrival of the children from Belarus in Cork as the work of just another charity, another good cause, and had given unstinting support.
It was the summer of 1991, the sun was shining and the Irish children who waited with their parents for the Russian youngsters to come to Cork looked radiant as children do when the weather is good.
There was an air of expectation. It was the first time such a project had been attempted. There was some apprehension too.
The children, 30 of them, from Belarus - the most polluted area on earth - had made a quantum leap. They had left their irradiated homeland behind their mother tongue; their mothers and fathers - and all they knew - to experience a holiday where the butter, milk, meat and air were safe. Yet on arrival, they looked bewildered, wan, hopeless, and after their first air journey, from Belarus to Shannon, and the coach trip to Cork, they had enough for one day. Their minders had too, but they were not complaining.
The children, some suffering from awful diseases caused by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, were just plain tired and sick. At Patrick's Hill, the welcoming committee was waiting. Excited Cork families mingled with the Russian interpreters in a sort of failte frenzy. A little bit chaotic, it was moving and disturbing at the same time. Disturbing because all one had to do was compare the Irish children's complexions with those of the children they were going to host. On one side, cherubic, healthy young people; on the other, jaded, tired, youngsters with few expectations. And that's where it all started.
That was six years ago. Ms Adi Roche and a small team of volunteers had simply responded to a crisis appeal from doctors in Belarus. The doctors had faxed organisations around the world begging for help. They couldn't cope. Would someone, somewhere respond and take the children out of the radiation zone just for a while?
At the time, Ms Roche was - heavily involved in Irish CND - and it was her office which received the fax. It prompted her and two friends to travel to Belarus and see the situation for themselves. Even then, you could see the aura of energy surrounding Adi Roche. It was a strange phenomenon which seemed to draw everyone into her circle of belief. Out of that energy and anger at the plight of the Belarussian children, the Chernobyl Children's Project grew.
It has since become a limited company with outreach groups throughout the Republic. There are also outreach groups in Britain and the US. Its founders, like Ms Roche, have become household names, and some, who were there in the background at the beginning, are still there in the background. But they have done wonderful things.
The sick children, wide eyed in wonderment and anticipation, who come here as a result of a great voluntary effort, arrive in a pretty terrible state, and leave all the better for their visit.
The Chernobyl Children's Project needs no public relations effort. Human misery is always newsworthy. The misery of innocent children demands even more attention. After the visit to Belarus, Ms Roche and her colleagues brought the first group of children to Ireland. The 30 unhealthy looking youngsters left a month later with rosy cheeks. Since then, some 2,500 children have been airlifted out of Belarus for a summer break in Ireland.
Each summer, the priority is to identify children who are most at risk from radiation sickness. Where possible, the children of the "liquidators" are given the opportunity to escape an environment which has killed thousands and will kill many more. The liquidators were the unfortunate men who fought the fire after the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl more than 10 years ago. Thousands of them paid for their heroism with their lives. Many more are living out their last days knowing that when they die, they will leave their families destitute.
By giving the high risk children respite from the summer radiation levels, there is some hope that they will not develop the catastrophic illnesses that have ruined a generation of Belarussians.
Next June, 1,500 children will leave Belarus for a holiday. The majority will stay with host families in Ireland and the remainder will be guests of families in Britain and the US.
The distribution of £6.5 million in humanitarian and medical aid to Belarus and western Russia is overseen from a small office in Cork. The aid is delivered directly by project volunteers to ensure it arrives safely in the hands of those - for whom it is intended - mainly the "adopted" hospitals and orphanages in the radiation zone.
The project has now embarked on a long term aid programme aimed at improving the facilities in orphanages such as the Vasilivichi Orphanage for blind and partially sighted children in Belarus. Last October, a building contract was signed to provide new shower, laundry and toilet facilities at the orphanage. Irish architects have travelled to Belarus to oversee the first stage of building.
A five-year programme to upgrade the Novinki Institution for Physically and Mentally Handicapped Children, in Minsk has also begun. The programme will provide facilities to help the children develop their full potential. Irish nurses are supervising the overhaul of the institution.
As well as the children who holiday here, other groups have received specialised medical attention in Ireland which has undoubtedly saved their lives. Vital surgery, which could not be carried out in Belarus, has given hope for a full life to at least a dozen children. There is also a programme of care for terminally ill children, at Barretstown Castle, in Co Kildare.
On April 18th next, a convoy of aid will leave Cork for Belarus. It will bring 30 ambulances and six 38 tonne trucks full of medical equipment to the stricken region.
Ms Clare Benjamin, press and education officer for the project, said: "We rely on the fantastic generosity of the Irish donors and volunteer fund raisers, whose ongoing support makes our continuing work possible. The commitment given by the volunteer humanitarian aid workers who give up their annual holidays to go to Chernobyl, having first spent months fund raising for the cost of their trip, and who put themselves at risk of exposure to radiation in order to help ease the suffering of children in pain, cannot be measured.
"The lifeblood of the project is also the support of the host families and outreach groups throughout Ireland. These families spend months fund raising for the cost of the air fares for children staying in their area, and then give up a month to devote themselves selflessly to building up the health and well being of a child they may never see again."