See It: The Community being helped

Reach Out Chernobyl Organization (R.O.C.O.) was established in order to provide better medical care for children suffering from the aftermath of the 1986 Chernobyl power plant disaster. When the nuclear explosion occurred more than two decades ago, the radiation emitted spread to all of Eastern Europe. Even today, the areas affected in the 80s still carry radiation in the ground, which further creates a chain-reaction of birth defects and high incidences of cancer in children.

R.O.C.O.'s goal is to equip two different medical centers in Klitnsy, Russia (a Children's Hospital and a Development Center for Invalid Children) and a Children's Orphanage with basic essential medical supplies (e.g. over-the-counter cold medication, bandaids, vitamins, toothpaste, and more) to treat sick children. The main issue is that the hospitals which take care of these sick children, often lack the basic medical essentials to do their job. We plan to appeal to companies, institutions, medical centers and willing businesses to donate basic supplies that R.O.C.O can then package and ship to the children who can most benefit from them.

A website, http://www.reachoutchernobyl.org, was created to not only enhance expansion of our purpose, but to educate individuals about the sorts of consequences innocent children endure to this day as a result of the tragic mistake that occurred well before their time.

Without sufficient funding to cover the extensive shipping costs, we will be unable to deliver these life-saving products to needy children. The Plum Grant would provide us with a sizable portion of what we would need to carry out our purpose.