Chernobyl Children's Project International

part two: how we helped chernobyl children in 2008, and looking ahead

As a donor, volunteer, adviser or fan, your support has been critical this year.  Last week, we featured 2008 accomplishments and future objectives for three programs:  community centers, medical/therapeutic training, and volunteer medical care.  Today, we will focus on these:  at home care for disabled children, children's cardiac surgeries, and the Soltanovka adult asylum.

At home care for disabled children:  The community care program takes disabled children off waiting lists for orphanages and provides their families with the support they need to care for their children at home. Click here to meet some of the kids you've helped.

In 2008, your support allowed us to expand the program from 18 to 24 families, provided a wheelchair accessible van so that home bound children could go on outings, allowed us to add therapeutic staff, and made it possible for several children to attend a summer camp for the first time.  In 2009, we hope to continue to expand and improve this program, but your financial sponsorship is needed for children and for staff.  Email me for more information. 

Soltanovka Adult Asylum:  Over the years, our volunteers and staff watched in dread and dismay as disabled children we love turned 18 and were moved to Soltanovka.  Tragically, once committed, this is their final home. While we continue to develop alternatives to institutionalization, we cannot turn our backs on the almost 200 disabled adults of all ages who live here.  In 2008, CCPI volunteers began a dental program, replaced old drafty windows and renovated showers and toilets, and built a bright new unit to replace a dank and dismal one.  In 2009, with your support, we hope to replace another unit and a leaky roof, and develop training programs for staff that will raise the quality of life for the residents.   Institutionalization strips away so much dignity -- we hope this photo album will give insight into the humanity and individuality of each resident of Soltanovka.

Kids' cardiac surgeries and training:  This year, we expanded our cardiac surgery program into Ukraine where we saved scores of young lives and trained local medical teams to operate on children who are very small or have the most complicated defects.  Next year, with your support, we will send volunteer surgical teams twice to Belarus, and 4 times to Ukraine. Please make a donation to support this life saving program, or email me to learn how to sponsor a mission.

Stay tuned:  homes of hope and hospice

volunteer kids' dental program begins this month in chernobyl regions

A vivid memory of my first visit to the Vesnova Mental Asylum for Children some 6 years ago was the heart breaking state of the children's teeth. The sight and smell of over one hundred sets of rotting teeth -- and the suffering that undoubtedly goes with it -- is impossible to forget.

That is why we are glad to announce, starting this month, a dental program at both Vesnova and at the Soltanokva Asylum for adults. A volunteer team headed up by Teresa Cronin and Mary Sugrue will travel to Belarus twice a year to give dental care to children and adults living in these institutions, and to train caregivers on hygiene.

Chernobyl Children's Project International hires and trains nurses and caregivers to improve quality of care in understaffed institutions in Chernobyl affected regions. Teams of medical and therapeutic volunteers travel monthly to work with children and -- most important -- to train their peers in the community in techniques to improve the care of the children year round.

These photos demonstrate how critical is this program. If you would like to make a donation to support the CCPI dental care program, click here. Sponsorships are available, email me for details.

Photos include Vadim (bravely having his first dental exam), Maxim (a wonderful boy from Vesnova with terribly rotten teeth), Igor (at top, full of personality) from Vesnova, and a young adult from the Soltanovka.