On the CCPI Channel on You Tube, you can watch Chernobyl Heart, the Academy Award winning film that follows Chernobyl Children's Project International through Belarus. We also pulled together into one channel the best Chernobyl-related videos from around the Internet. You'll find Paul Fusco's moving Chernobyl Legacy video essay, a BBC video feature on Cooking in the Danger Zone, a Greenpeace video about how Chernobyl impacts people today, and many more. You can subscribe to the CCPI Channel, and we'll notify you when we add something new.
Lots of people are using social networks -- such as Facebook -- to stay in touch with friends and families and let them know what they find interesting and important. Now you can join a Chernobyl Children's Project International Page on Facebook. Click on the button to the right to go there, and then click on "Become a Fan" to show your support and spread the word in your network.
One of the children prominently featured in the piece -- Victor, the little boy with the cleft palate and tracheotomy tube -- died shortly after the filming. (Here is a photo I took of his grave last month). His loss was a terrible reminder that children belong in families, not in institutions.
Along those lines, the film also introduces Ina Gudkovskie, who lived in an orphanage before joining a real family in one of CCPI's "homes of hope." You can click here to learn more about the Gudkovskie family, and watch the video to hear Ina (who speaks English) talk about how having a mother and father has changed her life. Click the links to read the about the Zhila and Savin families -- happy homes made up of children who had suffered lives of neglect and abuse. If you want to learn more about sponsoring a family home for children who have been living in orphanages, please email me.
Finally, the film updates the story of Vesnova asylum resident Sasha
Levkin, who along with his friend Sasha appeared in the film Chernobyl Heart. (Both boys are pictured here -- Sasha Levkin is seen holding a photo of Chernobyl's Hero, a Karakorum race horse whose winnings are donated to CCPI.) Both boys have reached the age when they would typically be transfered to an adult asylum, where they
would be warehoused until death. The boys have feared and dreaded this prospect for the 7 years we have known them. In the film, you will see CCPI founder Adi Roche promising Sasha (as he weeps with happiness) that CCPI volunteers will build them a home of their own. As I write this, that promise is coming true -- a CCPI volunteer team is in Mogilev right now building a disability accessible home for the two Sashas, and for 8 other disabled young adults who will be able to live with dignity, rather than being transfered to an adult institution.
When I talked to the two Sashas last month, however, "dignity" was not the word rolling off their lips -- it was more like: "Party!" (Don't worry, we've hired staff to assist the young people and provide supervision!) They were brimming over with excitement and anticipation. After all of the difficulties Sasha has been through, it is almost surreal to realize that when I next see him, he will be able to serve me tea in his very own home.
Now you can learn about the Chernobyl disaster through video -- including videos showing Chernobyl Children's Project International at work -- on our new CCPI Channel on YouTube. Go there by clicking on the YouTube button on the right. 
Lots of people are using social networks -- such as Facebook -- to stay in touch with friends and families and let them know what they find interesting and important. Now you can join a Chernobyl Children's Project International Page on Facebook. Click on the button to the right to go there, and then click on "Become a Fan" to show your support and spread the word in your network. 
