Chornobyl hearings in parliament

On April 8, 2009, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine held a parliamentary hearing "The current state and urgent tasks to overcome the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster." The President of the International Charitable Foundation "Children of Chernobyl for Survival" took part in the parliamentary hearings. Submit the text of her speech:

Dear people's deputies and guests!

From a terrible Chernobyl date we are given away twenty-three years. Twenty three years. That was how much our fire-fighting heroes, Vladimir Right and Victor Kibenko, who joined the unequal battle with atomic fire.
So, radiation primarily took health and even life in the young. And especially cruel she was to the children. Today we are told: "What kind of children are Chernobyl? They have not been there for a long time? "So, about the Chernobyl disaster begin to forget.
In this connection I will give an example. Not so long ago, I was with a group of children from Chernobyl visited Libya. There we were invited to the residence of Muammar Gaddafi and led to some kind of ruins. It turned out to be the house of a Libyan leader, destroyed by bombing, note, in April 1986. And since then, Gaddafi has taken in this ruin of foreign guests, each time reminding the whole world about that tragedy.
In Ukraine, Chernobyl is remembered only for the next anniversary. And they say, basically, about a new sarcophagus.
Yes, a sarcophagus is needed. I'm afraid, just after its construction, the Chernobyl theme will go to oblivion, and the children of Chernobyl will remain alone with their problems.
And these children are hundreds of thousands. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, the State Register of Persons Affected by the Chornobyl Catastrophe named a specific figure: more than 428 thousand. Most of them live in Polissia. And this region is very sensitive to radiocaesium and radiostrengthening. Add to that the deficiency of iodine and iron.
How does it affect children? Recently, our Foundation held an exhibition "The Art World of Chornobyl Children" in Rome, where the best pupils from the Ovruch Small Academy of Folk Arts and Crafts from Zhytomyr Region showed their own pictures of straw. So, I was struck by the fact that these children were very tired and literally falling from their feet. That convinces: all young Chernobyl people need annual improvement in ecologically clean areas.
In fact, only one in four is healed. And in the same Ovruch to this day count also children who rest in the local boarding house "Sonechko" !? As they say, the comments here are superfluous.
And how not to mention the good word here is the 1990 year when Ukraine spent the year of improving the lives of children living in the affected areas of the Chernobyl accident. And although now another time, I call on people's deputies on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the accident to announce the next, 2010 year, a year of recovery of Chernobyl children.
Perfectly understand: with the money it will be arrogant. However, even the fact of raising this issue at the state level will help children's Chornobyl organizations work with Ukrainian and foreign partners.
Thank you for attention.