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June 8, 2007
Legacy of Chernobyl's children
Chabad helps kids from former Soviet Union affected by radiation
start a new life in Israel.
EDGAR ASHER ISRANET
April 26, 1986: nuclear disaster in the northern Ukrainian city
of Chernobyl. It was an event that is still having an impact on
the Ukraine and Belarus 21 years later. It will have a profound
influence on these two countries for the foreseeable future.
In an unsupervised and improperly arranged experiment, with the
water cooling system turned off, a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear
power plant exploded, sending some 190 tons of radioactive uranium
and graphite into the atmosphere. The nuclear fallout from the explosion
was 90 times greater than the atomic bomb that exploded over Hiroshima
at the end of the Second World War.
The reactor's protective roof was blown off and radiation spread
across northern Europe, with traces of radioactive uranium soon
being recorded as far away as Britain and Sweden. At least 13,000
people involved in the clean-up operation died in the coming years
from radiation poisoning. Four hundred thousand people were evacuated
out of the immediate area of the blast and 2,000 villages were demolished.
As the years went by, it was clear that the medical consequences
of the accident had been completely underestimated and even today,
the health of the local population cannot be properly assessed.
It soon became apparent that countless numbers of children born
after the disaster were showing signs of dramatic genetic disorders
and mental conditions. Thyroid cancer became prevalent and serious
congenital births increased by 250 per cent following the explosion.
Some children were born with grotesque disfigurements and profound
mental disabilities. Parents were abandoning such newly born children
in the streets, filling the orphanages and hospital in the area
far beyond their capacity and medical capabilities.
More than 90 per cent of Belarus was affected by various amounts
of contamination, as was the northern part of Ukraine, as far away
as some 300 kilometres south of the explosion.
"At the time, nobody really understood just how bad Chernobyl
was," said Yossie Raichick, director of Chabad's Children of
Chernobyl, in a recent interview with the Independent. "For
the first 72 hours after the explosion, the Russian government denied
everything. Remember that the Ukraine was then part of the former
Soviet Union. With higher than usual radioactive fallout being recorded
as far away as Sweden, the Russian government admitted to the world
that there was a problem. The Russians decided to evacuate a 30
kilometre radius from the explosion. The evacuation was 'Russian
style.' They come in at night and tell you to pack a suitcase because
you are leaving your home next day. People were under the false
impression that everything outside a 30 kilometre radius was OK
now."
It still took the Russians three or four years to realize that there
was a major problem. Thousands of children were being born with
deformities. Fruits and vegetables were growing unusually large
and were full of isotopes. Slowly, the government admitted that
the radiation went beyond the 30-kilometre zone. Six years after
Chernobyl, the Jewish communities in the area started to turn to
Jewish organizations around the world for tangible help.
"Chabad was the first organization to respond positively, because
most Jewish organizations felt that they did not have the experience
or the know-how to attempt to help. For everybody, it was an unknown
area," explained Raichick. "Nobody knew what was the effect
of mass radiation and what the kids were suffering from."
Yossi Kogan, a member of Chabad originally from St. Petersburg and
who now lives in Israel, was asked if Chabad could help take out
the kids from the affected area. Chabad at the time had also said,
"What can we do? We don't know anything about the problems
of radiation."
"Kogan decided that this was not a good enough answer, so he
wrote to the Lubavitcher Rebbe," said Raichick. "Kogan
told the rebbe that Jewish communities in Ukraine and Belarus were
asking for urgent help. The rebbe, obviously moved by the disaster,
wrote a short note to Chabad rabbis in Israel saying, 'Who is going
to help these children?' "
One hundred and ninety-six child survivors of Chernobyl were brought
to Israel in August 1990. Since then, almost 2,500 children have
been brought to Israel on 76 special flights. More than 1,500 of
these children have been reunited with their parents in Israel.
The most recent of these flights was on April 25.
"There are still thousands of Jews in the affected area,"
Raichik pointed out. "They cannot just get up and go. There
are both financial and physical problems about moving from their
towns and villages. Also, if they did move, they would not have
a job to go to. Even where they are now, they barely have enough
money to subsist on." Chabad also sends food, blankets and
medical supplies to the general population in the affected region.
The children in Kfar Chabad today were born long after the disaster
- but they are in greater danger than those born before the original
nuclear fallout. Before the disaster, a child had built up his immune
system. Today, he is even ingesting radiation when he is developing
inside his mother's body. The radiation is as strong today as it
was on the day of the explosion. The first half-life, when this
variety of radioactive material begins to lose its potency, is after
27 years. "People live in the region in denial. They live in
a bubble," said Raichik. "They only come to realize the
severity of the problem when somebody gets sick."
The health of the Chernobyl children in Kfar Chabad is carefully
and regularly monitored by experienced medical staff on the campus.
Pediatricians, psychologists and dentists watch for any indication
of radiation induced diseases, particularly thyroid cancer problems.
Children at high risk are examined on a daily basis, with all medical
care being supervised by the Hadassah Hospital.
All the children are given sufficient clothing and housed in attractive
rooms. They receive a general education, which has seen a few of
them entering Israeli universities. Young Russian-speaking volunteers
from Kfar Chabad give individual tuition to children who might find
the educational curriculum, or the Hebrew, a bit difficult. There
are plenty of sports and computer facilities for both work and leisure.
Chabad funds all the requirements of each child and it is estimated
that on average, it costs about $23,000 US to keep each child at
Kfar Chabad for a 20-month stay.
"As far as the population in the affected areas is concerned,
unfortunately the worst is yet to come," said Raichik. "For
the children who have been fortunate to come to Israel, the best
is yet to come."
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