A number of non-governmental organizations have been set up to provide aid to Chernobyl victims. Green Help (Zeleny Dopomoga), an independent youth ecological organization in the Ukraine, is one of these. Currently, the main project of the group is the building of a diagnostic and hospital center in the neighbourhood of Kiev for those who suffer not only from the Chernobyl accident, but who are victims of other ecological disasters in the Ukraine as well.
To this end they have called on other foreign environmental organizations for help and are working to create international branches of a foundation for building the center, called the "Foundation for Help to Victims of Environmental Disasters". One of the reasons the group chose to focus on medical help to the Chernobyl victims was because doctors who were living in the afflicted area at the time of the accident were among the first to leave when the knew the magnitude of the accident and its implications.
Among many other aspects of the project, Green Help and its partners hope to create the possibility for Ukrainian doctors and medical students to study and handle the much needed advanced western equipment and medicines, and exchange experience with western partners. They also envision creating a place to which leading specialists from all over the world could be invited to study the Chernobyl problem and help those suffering from the accident. In addition, they hope to be able to create a specialized department for the children.
The focus of the group for now is developing activities to raise funds for the project. Already they have preliminary agreements with non-governmental organizations in Norway and Sweden for arranging benefits around an exhibition of children's drawings, paintings and handicrafts. The exhibition, "Environment Through a Child's Experience", consists of 200 drawings and paintings, 50 works of ceramic and sculpture, embroidery, hand-made carpets and other handicraft. All are made by children who have suffered from the accident at Chernobyl. The age of the children is between 4-15 years. The exhibition is accompanied by photo and video documents telling about the accident. All profits will be spent to organize the medical help and to provide advanced medical equipment and medicine for children still living in the contaminated areas or who have been resettled from the 30 km zone around the nuclear plant.
For those interested in helping Green Help or who would like to host the exhibition, contact them at the address below.
Source and contact: Natalia Karpan, International Secretary, Green Help, 13, Postisheva str., app. 16, Kiev-1, 252001, Ukraine, USSR, tel: 007-044-2256473, fax: 007-044-2286992.
OTHER AID PROJECTS
Relief funds raised for the Chernobyl victims, or more specifically, how the relief funds were spent, have become a major issue. Byelorussian Foreign Minister P.K. Kravchenko has said that the Byelorussian people want aid to come to them directly, rather than go through the Soviet government, because as yet they have received nothing from the US $50 million dollars of the international aid so far raised for Chernobyl victims: practically all of this money is in the possession of the Ministry of Atomic Energy and Production, which is in fact responsible for the disaster in the first place. The first wave of donations, supposedly to help the evacuees from the 30 km zone around the power station, was largely used, it is now known, to finance additional safety measures at other Chernobyl-type power stations. Other abuses include examples such as that of a travel bureau in Minsk which was in charge of arranging Baltic cruises for people whose immune systems had been damaged by radiation, but instead was found to be using the available places to pay off old favors to colleagues and officials. By 1990, Local Red Cross officials in the Byelorussian SSR (which received the majority of the Chernobyl fallout) were begging that relief supplies be sent directly to them - a request which, for organizational reasons, the International Red Cross could not honor.
Although a large amount of funds had been set aside for new housing (in 1990, for instance, 70 million rubles), the money was mostly spread around various agencies and only several hundred apartments have actually been built. The majority of this money just disappeared, without any controls. To complicate matters, reliable maps of focusing are still lacking, thus making the choice of safe locations for building new houses difficult. It should also be noted than enormous sums of money (more than one billion rubles) have been spent for reclamation of contaminated land in an attempt to make it more or less suitable for human habitation.
On 11 February this year, a conference of public organizations focusing on the problems relating to Chernobyl was held in Moscow. The main goal was to establish a council to coordinate Chernobyl-related public work, as well as the distribution of aid coming from abroad. Private aid groups have accused the Soviet government of using this conference as what they call a "public shelter" for monopolizing the adminstration of the incoming money and goods. The newly established coordinating council, they point out, includes representatives of official organizations such as the Soviet Peace Committee and is led by Victor Gubanov, Deputy Chairman of the USSR's Council of Ministers Committee on Extreme Situations. The council's critics are cautioning their foreign friends and partners to be careful in delivering aid to official "establishment" organizations, and suggest developing contacts largely with NGOs directly.
Because of this situation, we are providing a list of private organi-zations providing aid to Chernobyl victims for which we can vouch. Some of these groups have been mentioned in previous issues of the News Communique, but we feel this bears repeating.
In the Soviet Union:
- MAMA '86, a Kiev organization created under the aegis of Zeleny Swit (Green World), to unite the mothers whose children were born and are growing up in Kiev. Its goal is to create the conditions for the survival of the children of Kiev through qualitative nourishment, vitamin therapy, and medical assistance. Their address: Post Box 64, Kiev-60, 252060, Ukraine, USSR, fax: 007-044 440 30 17.
- Pripyat, the name for the Byelorussian Union of "Liquidators" (people involved in the cleanup at Chernobyl following the disaster). Contact: Sergei Boiko or Anatoly Borovski, P.B. 181, Minsk, 220116, Byelorussia, USSR, tel: 71 3858 and 62 31 05.
- The Byelorussian Popular Front. This organization has a bank account in Berlin. Money can be transfered directly to: Sparkasse der Stadt Berlin West, Kto-Nr. 640019162 (Bl.2 10050000).
- Byelorussian Ecological Union, Lenin street 15a, Minsk 220030, Byelorussia, USSR.
- Chernobyl Union, the largest (more than a million strong) organization dealing with the Chernobyl aftermath. Channels humanitarian aid.
Outside the Soviet Union:
- BUND (Association for the environment and the Protection of Nature Germany), which along with other German environmental groups, is collecting money for medical equipment, food and building materials for new homes needed for people still to be evacuated. Address: Erbprinzstr.18, D-7800 Freiburg, FRG.
- SOS Chernobyl/Sweden, a non-profit organization formed to help children suffering from the Chernobyl catastrophe get medical attention and uncontaminated food, as well as to support teachers and others in monitoring contamination levels. SOS Chernobyl does not intend to send money, but rather food and materials that are in short supply. Contact: SOS Chernobyl, c/o Palmaer, Dalbobranten 35, 5 tr, S-123 53 Farsta, Sweden. Bankgiro: 5715-6564.
Sources:
- Megapolis-Continent (USSR), Dec. 1990
- The Lancet (UK), Dec. 22/29, 1990
- WISE-Amsterdam
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