A CONVOY of nine articulated trucks and a number of vans carrying more than €1m worth of humanitarian aid supplies to Chernobyl will leave Ireland for Belarus this afternoon.

Volunteer drivers with the Irish Chernobyl Children's Trust will depart Walterstown GAA Club near Navan at 2.30pm on a six-day journey to Belarus where they will spend a week before returning home.

The nine trucks are packed full of high-quality humanitarian aid. Two specially adapted wheelchair mini-vans, which will be donated to organisations in Belarus, will also be driven by volunteer drivers.

The convoy is set to deliver the vital aid to mainly rural and impoverished communities across Belarus ahead of their long, harsh winter.

Simon Walsh, chairman of the Irish Chernobyl Children's Trust, said: "I am more convinced than ever of the overwhelming need for this vital lifeline of support to disadvantaged communities in those areas.

"The provision of clean, uncontaminated, imported food and other essential items can only be effectively achieved on a large scale by delivering it in convoy.

"We will deliver 150 tonnes of top-quality aid valued at €979,282, and it will be personally delivered by Irish volunteer drivers, which is very reassuring for our donors and supporters."

The convoy will also carry aid for the northern charity Chernobyl Children Appeal NI, so overall it will carry more than €1m in aid to Belarus from the people of Ireland.

Community organisations across Belarus are desperately in need of assistance, and without outside support they simply cannot effectively provide the services that are needed.

Meanwhile, Walsh bel-ieves that travel restrictions imposed on children from the Chernobyl region by the Belarusian government last month will not affect Chernobyl children coming to Ireland.

"As far as our organisation is concerned, it is business as usual," he said. "We don't expect to have any restrictions placed on our convoy and we are already making arrangements for around 30 children to come over here for Christmas.

"Essentially, there is a ban on children going to the US, so the Belarus government is seeking to formulate bilateral agreements with other governments so that Belarusian children can travel to other countries.

"We would be hopeful that the Belarus agreement with the Irish government would be signed shortly. This agreement gives security to the Belarusian government who have a big fear of adoption by stealth.

"So this agreement will ensure compliance with visas for children going abroad. It is good to have agreement on both sides and it will ensure that the high standards of vetting procedures that have been in use are continued."

The restrictions were imposed last month after a 16-month-old Belarusian girl failed to return from a visit to the US in August.