BRAMA, Apr 28, 2004, 1:00 pm ET
Not for the faint of heart
Oscar-winning documentary about Chornobyl screened at UN
— By Hanya Krill
Adi Roche, featured in the award-winning documentary film Chernobyl Heart, is the founder of the Ireland-based NGO, Children's Chernobyl Project (website: www.chernobyl-ireland.com). According to Eileen Crimmins of the CPP, the project was an outgrowth of an anti-nuclear organization (CND - Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), which received a desperate appeal in 1991 from Belarussian doctors to help "get the children out." CPP did exactly that and it hasn't stopped providing aid for Chornobyl children since.
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New York — It's the children, the innocent children, who suffer the most today as a result of the worst nuclear accident in history – the 1986 reactor meltdown in Chornobyl (Chernobyl*), Ukraine. This is the message that filmmaker Maryann DeLeo sends to viewers in her Academy Award®-winning documentary Chernobyl Heart, and it comes through loud and clear. The HBO-produced film was screened yesterday evening for an audience of about 1,000 in the United Nations General Assembly headquarters in New York. The film though shocking and difficult to watch is a moving portrayal of a humanitarian organization's experiences in Belarus – one of the countries most seriously affected by the 1986 Chornobyl catastrophe.
Filmmaker
Maryann DeLeo
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Jan Egeland
United Nations Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
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Belarus Ambassador
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Ambassador Valery Kuchinsky,
Ukraine
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The title of the film takes its name from a condition that has become known as 'Chornobyl heart.' The syndrome, described in the film as holes in the heart, is found today in increasing numbers among those born in areas with exceptionally high radiation levels. The negative health effects from the radiation are varied and not limited to the heart – cancers, physical deformities and genetic mutations are also common . In this context, however, the Chornobyl heart syndrome – misdiagnosed as inoperable in one patient's case – acts as a paradigm illustrating an ailing system that can't seem to find viable solutions to the legacy of problems left by the Chornobyl accident.
Children in Belarus (and likely in Ukraine as well) are routinely placed in psychiatric facilities even though their handicaps might be of a physical nature rather than mental. Nurses or attendants often exhibit a callous indifference to the young patients, handling them as if the young do not feel pain. Except for those that are well funded by the West, medical institutions are shown to be in dreadful disrepair and poorly equipped, providing few comforts for the children. At one hospital featured in the film, a young patient pleads for a television or some other type of entertainment unit that could help take the children's minds off their misery. Physicians are not trained to discuss the seriousness of their medical conditions directly with the patients. The absence of adequate medical facilities for diagnosis and treatment leaves many of the children with permanent damage that might have been averted or cured by proper medical attention at birth.
Arguably, the most tragic aspect of the whole issue is that the Chornobyl danger zone, the reactor and surrounding area where higher than 'normal' radiation levels are present, continues to profoundly affect the populations of Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia, and it poses an even greater health risk going into the future. It is said that "the next Chornobyl will be – Chornobyl." The sarcophagus, the shell that was hastily constructed to contain the radiation emanating from the reactor core, has deteriorated to such a degree that it may eventually release greater amounts of radiation than the accident itself did in 1986.
What becomes abundantly clear to the viewers of Chernobyl Heart is that the key to resolving or at least mitigating the problems caused by the 1986 accident is funding. The government of Ukraine still awaits the assistance promised by the international community to help build more secure containment around the reactor and cleanup of the surrounding area. In her closing remarks the 'star' of the documentary film, Adi Roche, appealed for wide support of NGOs whose missions are to aid the victims of Chornobyl.
Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky and Mrs. Nadia Matkiwsky, founders of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF, website: www.childrenofchornobyl.org) attended yesterday's UN event. Representing the Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF, website: www.chornobyl.ca) was Mrs. Tania Melnyk, who is also actively involved in an anti-trafficking initiative in Canada called "Stop the Trafficking Coalition" (website: www.stopthetrafficking.org). Visit the websites to learn about the worthy projects these organizations have initiated and for information about how to contribute to their efforts.
The film Chernobyl Heart will be screened at the Tribeca Film Festival (www.tribecafilmfestival.org) on Tuesday, May 4 / 6:00pm and Saturday, May 8 / 6:00pm at the Tribeca Grand in New York City. Bring a box of tissues.
* Note: Chornobyl is the correct English transliteration for the city located in Ukraine where the nuclear accident took place in 1986. The name 'Chernobyl' is transliterated from Russian, and is used in this article where appropriate, such as in the film title Chernobyl Heart.
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