Three oblasts in Ukraine to receive aid (03/16/97)

Humanitarian airlift is culmination of Chornobyl anniversary efforts

Three oblasts in Ukraine to receive aid

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Culminating a year of fund-raising and charitable work dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the explosion at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the 18th airlift of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) landed in Ukraine on March 11 carrying $1.7 million in medicine and medical equipment for hospitals in Lviv, Chernihiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

"Today there are children and pensioners whom no one is helping and for whom aid like this is desperately needed," said Verkhovna Rada National Deputy Volodymyr Yavorivsky, who has long worked closely with the CCRF and was at Boryspil Airport outside Kyiv to greet the plane.

This effort supports the Women's and Children's Health Initiative, a program active in the Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk and Vinnytsia oblasts of Ukraine, which was organized through the efforts of the CCRF and the St. Louis-based Monsanto Corp. The program's honorary chairman is Liudmyla Kuchma, the wife of Ukraine's president Leonid Kuchma. However, Mrs. Kuchma did not attend the airport ceremonies due to a scheduling conflict; she and the president had flown to Moldova on an official visit that morning.

On hand to greet the IL-74 MD Ukrainian military cargo plane that transported the nearly 42 tons of precious cargo were U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Green Miller, Ukraine's Deputy Foreign Minister Volodymyr Khandogy and National Deputy Yavorivsky, along with representatives from hospitals.

Monsanto and the CCRF joined forces last April to form the initiative, which is dedicated to improving prenatal care for pregnant women and to dramatically reduce the rate of infant mortality in three of Ukraine's most heavily industrialized and polluted areas. Monsanto's grant of $650,000 helped purchase a full neonatal intensive care unit for Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Children's Hospital No. 3. It includes incubators, respirators, pulse oximeters, cardiac monitors, hyper-alimentation solutions for the dispensation of nutrients for infants.

Also on the plane was a similar unit for Chernihiv, as well as antibiotics and medicines. As Alex Kuzma, CCRF director of development, put it, "Everything but the kitchen sink is on board."

The Monsanto-CCRF initiative also will fund the training of Ukrainian obstetricians and gynecologists. The first three doctors from Ukraine are scheduled to arrive in April for six weeks of training with the St. Barnabas Medical System in New Jersey.

Monsanto produces fertilizers and other agro-products, and recently become involved in the agriculture in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine.

The portion of the $1.7 million cargo destined for Chernihiv was made possible largely through donations from parishes of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A., which began a yearlong fund-raising campaign with a banquet to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Chornobyl on February 4, 1996, at the Church's cultural center in South Bound Brook, N.J. The combined contributions resulted in the donation of more than $258,000 worth of medicine and equipment, which included a neo-natal intensive care unit for the Chernihiv Children's Hospital, along with medicine and antibiotics for other hospitals.

Mr. Kuzma of the CCRF said the airlift had been delayed for several months. It had been scheduled originally for November 1996, but problems first arose in obtaining a plane and then in dealing with a Ukrainian tax on humanitarian aid (which has since been suspended).

In the past, the CCRF has used Ukrainian and U.S. aircraft to transport its cargo, including the world's largest cargo plane, the Ukrainian Mria. "[This time] the plane was the real hitch," said Mr. Kuzma. "For unknown reasons there was a delay. We still don't know why. Ambassador [to the United Nations] Anatolii Zlenko had taken personal responsibility, as well as the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and then finally President Kuchma got involved."

The second problem was a decision by the Verkhovna Rada in December 1996 to impose a tax on all humanitarian aid that would enter Ukraine. The idea was to stop businesses from bringing in goods by claiming them as tax-free humanitarian aid. However, the Verkhovna Rada did not foresee that this decision would provoke such a widespread cry of protest from legitimate humanitarian aid providers and the tax was suspended last month.

"The law did not change the way we did things," explained Mr. Kuzma. The CCRF received assurances from the U.S. State Department office of Ambassador Richard Morningstar that it would be able to deliver its medical aid. "We knew that we would eventually get the cargo in. We just wanted to get it here as quickly as possible to give a moral uplift to the communities and the doctors," said Mr. Kuzma.

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