COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse PracticesSocio-psychological analysis of the trips abroad to help torestore the health of Belarusian children in the period of postChernobylby Halina Hatalskaya 1The Chernobyl disaster led to a change in the psychological state of most of the people of Belarus who havesuffered the accident. The main factors contributing to this change are insufficient knowledge of radiation effects,contradictory information on the situation of environmental radioactivity and its consequences, the persistence offear for their health, welfare and well-being of their relatives, the sudden change in life stereotypes (forcibletransfer, lost of the habits, the change of the location and of the type of work), the need to observe constantlysafety measures and the need for regular monitoring.Numerous researches confirm that among the population who have suffered the accident there is reduction of thelevel of psychical adaptation, diffidence, unstable self-esteem and pessimistic estimation of the future. Almost twothirds of the examined population feel the lost of personal safety, which is the evidence of the development ofsocio-radioecological stress. Its effects have cumulative nature, and its range is always widening. In 1987 the48% of examined people suffered from socio-radioecological stress, in 1991 - 54%, in 1995 - у 74%.All the factors mentioned above influence children, resident on the contaminated area, which in its turn makes theproblem of the trips abroad for the improvement of health conditions actual. Many European countries werewilling to help to organize them. Since 90s annually about 50 thousand children, resident in the area which wasaffected by Chernobyl, have been to 26 countries for the improvement of health conditions. The majority went to:Italy (more than 30 thousand), Germany (10, 9 thousands), Spain (3,4 thousands), Great Britain (2,7 thousands),Irland (2,7 thousands), Belgium (2,6 thousands), the USA (1,3 thousand.), Austria (1 thousand.) and to othercountries.In the existing situation it is important to understand the significance of the trips and the improvement of healthconditions in the clean ecological Belarusian areas, in the foreign countries. In the post Chernobyl period socioeconomicalsituation of Belarus changed in such a way that trips abroad for 12-14 years were possible only dueto various foreign volunteer organizations. In our turn we can assume that trips abroad themselves (very oftenthese children hadn’t been even outside their village) to another socio-economical and socio-cultural environmentcan have different impact on the psyche, the consciousness, the development of a child’s personality. Forexample, on one hand, they can have positive influence on the child’s cultural development, the widening ofchild’s horizons, positive family experience, material assistance of the host family, the development of toleranceecc. On the other hand – the development of parasitical position, non realistic point of view about a better life1Department of Psychology - F.Skorina State University of Gomel - Belarus338