The Chernobileko Umeak Association creates a program pioneer to help children who can not come to rest in Euskadi

A date with another reality: Chernobyl children needing to breathe fresh air

-the program holiday healthy seeks to respond to the existing demand offering various ways of help for children affected by the Chernobyl disaster

– every year we have children whoin spite of complying with the requirements, cannot come to Euskadi by lack of foster families ”, said Enrique Angulo, Member of Chernobileko Umeak

-the objective is that nearly 12 children can remain in a leisure centre for three weeks in Ukraine for heal ” from the harmful effects of radiation

-the Chernobileko Umeak Association seeks host families for more than 58 orchildren who need to come to the Basque country during the summer

-Chernobileko Umeak performed a briefing on Saturday, November 29 to all persons who are interested in knowing how these children live and what their needs are

Bilbao, 2011-October for slightly more than a month and a half that 108 children who visited this summer Euskadi thanks to the Umeak Chernobileko Association they sailed to their place of origin. Time in which these volunteers have already begun to work with an eye on 2012. A year that occurs with important developments in order to provide more complete coverage for all those children who may need a priest ” before the consequences — physical and psychological — still palpable in Ukraine after 25 years of the nuclear disaster.

This is how it has born a pioneer action in partnership whose objective will focus on offering the possibility to go in Ukraine to a center that can recover and relax before the already-known minors aged 6 to 17 Chernobyl syndrome ”. An initiative which, under the name of healthy holiday, already was put to the test this summer with excellent results.

Unable to meet the existing demand we wanted to provide a healthy alternative to children which, despite fulfilling all the necessary requirements, cannot come to the Basque country in the absence of foster families ”, said Enrique Angulo, Member of Chernobileko Umeak. This project within the framework of the sea of Azov in the nearly 12 children may attend during three weeks of August a special centre where can relax, play and eat properly has been established for them.

Is a new possibility to all those who want to help but not eligible for a child at his home ”. Donations can be of various types. There is the possibility of sponsor ” a child to subsidize the cost of your stay and travel — about 400 euros — year ”. In this case sent a photograph of the child that are helping with the aim of creating a relationship between them. However, if this figure is high, it can collaborate with lower donate so that two families or more to pay the rest of one of the children ”.

Despite the good results in recent years still cannot meet the existing demand for bringing minors to Euskadi. This generated a major frustration for those affected the situation are living Ukrainian families we visited is critical ”. Thus, through a stay in sanatorium Dolphin — a Ukrainian Centre which is equivalent to a spa — small and small will improve his health weakened by the continuing radioactivity that are exposed on a daily basis and load energy for the return ”.

Holiday without radiation ”

The year 2012 is for Chernobileko Umeak full of challenges. Among them is the main line of this Association this year will focus on finding a host family for nearly 58 children who have been known in the last mission volunteers were Ukraine during the months of August and September. To this end, the Association has convened a briefing next Saturday, October 29, at 6 p.m. p.m. in Bolunta (2nd floor, c / Ronda s/n against No. 5.) (Bilbao). A close encounter which is intended to show the reality of these children affected by a historical fact that they did not live, but they suffer from. As the motto of this partnership, Chernobyl still alive … but needs your help ”.

There are currently nearly 108 children that are already part of host programs. But it takes more families. Must make a new effort ”, tells Enrique Angulo. A momentum that will be oriented to achieve new foster families for children with absolute priority, because of its proximity to the central and its limited economic resources.

Chernobyl syndrome

These children come each summer, two months, and escape ” the moments in which the radioactivity in Ukraine reaches maximum levels of contamination. Your stay in our country gives them strength. Here they breathe clean air, drinking water without pollution and their food is healthy. In Ukraine eat products that come from sites contaminated with radioactive elements that cancel out their nutrients and seriously affect your immune, endocrine and State system of health ”, explains Enrique.

Minors are suffering from the so-called Chernobyl syndrome ”, which identifies numerous disorders and health disorders caused by radioactivity but without a disease clearly expressed, and can make a normal life and do not need any kind of medical treatment. Life in the Basque country provided an improvement of health and enables them to generate new defenses which will then be very necessary to deal with life when they return to their villages.

These patents sequels to the North of Ukraine know a lot of Chernobileko Umeak volunteers, who each year travel to the worst affected areas in search of needy children. Many children living in Ivankiv and nearby villages, classified as zone 3 of radiation also visit Irpen, catalogued as zone 4. They are places away from Chernobyl but socially depressed and often forgotten major ”. On the other hand, the zones 1 and 2 are areas of exclusion to 30 km of the nuclear power plant. These grades are made according to the existing levels of radiation ”, explained.

Appointment with families
date: Saturday, October 29, 2011
time: 18.00 hours
place: Bolunta. 2nd floor, c / Ronda s/n against No. 5. Bilbao