COMMENTARY: Canadian fund helps young victims of Chornobyl (02/25/01)

COMMENTARY: Canadian fund helps young victims of Chornobyl

by Agnes Kripps

On December 15, 2000, the Chornobyl nuclear power plant was closed forever. Although this closure is a welcome announcement, the problems of the Chornobyl catastrophe will be felt in Ukraine for generations.

The most pressing problem now is to find storage for the spent fuel and other radioactive waste inside the No. 3 reactor. Another problem is the concrete encasement (sarcophagus) that now has several cracks which need immediate repair. The sarcophagus was built in haste following the 1986 nuclear accident; millions of dollars are now needed to rebuild and maintain this sarcophagus from a complete collapse.

There is also a danger in leaving the 200 tons of nuclear fuel and 3,000 tons of contaminated water entombed in the sarcophagus, and also a danger in storing it. Removing the waste could cause further radioactive damage and threaten the mighty Dnipro river, on which some 34 million people depend for their drinking water.

Chornobyl's fallout knew no boundaries, and our efforts to help Ukraine also must have no boundaries. Human ingenuity must find a way to guarantee the safety of the radioactive material entombed in the sarcophagus. Safeguarding Chornobyl from a further disaster must be a priority of the entire world.

We cannot wish away the consequences of this catastrophe; they are with us today and will continue to have effects on many generations yet unborn. At present 3.5 million people live on Ukrainian territory still contaminated by radiation. Of those, 1 million are children, the future of Ukraine.

The radioactive fallout of the nuclear accident mutilates the gene pool and devastates the environment. However, the real scale of the catastrophe, which displaced hundreds of thousands of people and turned bustling villages into ghost towns, has turned out to be far greater than once thought. There has been a dramatic increase in childhood thyroid cancer, leukemia, anemia, congenital malformations, and alterations of the immune system. Ukraine's Health Ministry is also worried about an increase in the deaths of emergency workers, most of whom are still under 50. The death rate in this group is double the national average.

The Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF), a registered Canadian charity, provides humanitarian aid such as medication, medical and technical equipment, supplies and food to clinics, treatment centers, hospitals and orphanages.

Today the CCCF sponsors a variety of projects to improve health care and the general well-being of disadvantaged and ill children and adults in Ukraine. The CCCF also assists long-term projects that demonstrate a commitment to education, health care, rehabilitation and community participation.

One of the CCCF's projects, Help Us Help the Children (HUHTC) addresses many needs across Ukraine. Currently, an estimated 100,000 children, ranging in age from infancy to 17 years are living in orphanages in Ukraine. This project is committed to improving the conditions in these institutions. Before the 1986 Chornobyl accident, only a small percentage of children in these orphanages had birth defects; today the comparable number is 60 percent.

The CCCF does not bring children to Canada because it is not cost effective. Dollars go much further by providing aid on site. Each dollar donated becomes $4 in purchasing power.

Chornobyl must be remembered, not to preserve the past, but to remove the menace the past has left behind and to create an environment, a vision and a common purpose that can sustain the generations yet unborn.

I urge members of the Ukrainian community to make tax-deductible donation. By doing so, you will be touching someone's life in a positive way.

To all our donors a heartfelt "thank you" for opening your heart to the children of Chornobyl. Because of your generosity and much-needed continued support, our work makes a difference.

Tax-deductible donations may be sent to: Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund, 772 West 52nd Ave., Vancouver, British Columbia V6P 1G4, For more information please phone this writer at (604) 321-6460.

Agnes Kripps is a director on the National Board of the Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund and the president of the Vancouver Chapter of the CCCF. She was the first person of Ukrainian ancestry to be elected on August 27, 1969 as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia (representing Vancouver South constituency) and also the first woman in Canada to be elected president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (Vancouver Branch) in 1962-1963.

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