Students from Wiltshire College have prepared welcome boxes for a visit by a group of eight children who live in an area of the Ukraine contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster.

The annual visit, organised by the Chernobyl Children’s Life Line charity, brings youngsters affected by radiation from the 1986 nuclear accident at the power station to Britain.

The students from the work skills group at the Trowbridge campus made goodie boxes for the children to help them settle in when they visit their host families in Westbury in July.

Families in Westbury have been hosting children from the Ukraine for many years and the Westbury branch of the charity has been busy raising funds to pay for this year’s visit by group of six girls, two boys and an accompanying adult.

Steve Lloyd, chairman of the charity’s West Wiltshire Link and programme leader for catering at the college, said: “The students wanted to do something for the children coming over and they have been very engaged in the project.”

The foundation department of the college also raised £170 by dressing up in wigs and making rocky road to sell around the college. The money will allow the Chernobyl group to visit Longleat.

The children, all aged 12, are from Borodyanka, a town about 50 miles from the reactor site where many Chernobyl evacuees were resettled.