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CHILDREN OF CHORNOBYL RELIEF FUND
DELIVERS 22d and 23d AIRLIFTS TO MARK CHORNOBYL ANNIVERSARY

Humanitarian Shipment Valued at $1.2 Million
Includes Neonatal Intensive Care Units To Combat Infant Mortality

(Short Hills, NJ. Apr.24) In its latest effort to reduce infant mortality in regions affected by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF), an award-winning charity based in Short Hills, New Jersey and Kyiv (Kiev) Ukraine is launching its 22d and 23d humanitarian airlifts. The first relief mission is scheduled to arrive at Boryspil International Airport near Kyiv on Wednesday, April 28th at approximately 2 p.m. The second airlift is expected to arrive at the L’viv Regional Airport in Western Ukraine on Wednesday, May 5th.. (Arrival time to be announced later this week). Both airlifts are being coordinated by the US State Department under the program "Operation Provide Hope".

Together, the airlifts will deliver over 31 tons of medical aid valued at over $1.2 million US dollars. Among the most valuable commodities included in the airlift will be a Ford Ambulance donated by the Rotary District of Fishkill, New York, neonatal intensive care equipment including incubators, ventilators, infant warmers and monitors with all accessories, ultrasounds and a variety of medications designated for hospitals in Lutsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Lviv, Donetsk, Mukachevo and other cities. The ambulance will be used primarily to transport newborn infants with life-threatening respiratory conditions from remote villages in Eastern Volyn to the provincial capital of Lutsk. The eastern areas of Volyn province were especially hard-hit by radiation from Chornobyl.

The airlift coincides with the thirteenth anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster which released enormous amounts of radiation over a vast region of Europe during a three-month period beginning April 26, 1986. The disaster has increased the rate of thyroid cancer in children to levels eighty times higher than normal in some areas. More recent studies have also shown significant genetic damage and birth complications among families that were exposed to Chornobyl’s fallout. Since 1993, several world health agencies have expressed grave concern about the severe drop in population in Belarus and Ukraine, the two nations hardest-hit by the radioactive cloud unleashed from the destroyed reactor. In the last five years, Ukraine has experienced a net loss of 2 million citizens and sharp reductions in life expectancy. Infant mortality stands at 21 per thousand – three times higher than the European average. Although other economic and environmental factors have exacerbated this population decline, Chornobyl is suspected as a major contributor to low birth rates and high mortality.

"This airlift will help to give Ukrainian doctors some of the critical tools they need to combat infant mortality," said, Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, President of CCRF and Chief of Surgery at Union Hospital in New Jersey. Matkiwsky cited the success of the Fund’s first neonatal partnership in Dnipropetrovsk. Within the first year of receiving training and technology from CCRF, the staff at Dnipropetrovsk City Children’s Hospital #3 was able to reduce its infant mortality rate almost in half while increasing the volume of patients.

In addition to the delivery of neonatal equipment, CCRF is holding an April 27th training conference on neonatal intensive care for specialists from eight cities where CCRF has established long-term hospital partnerships. (Chernihiv, Vinnytsia, L’viv, Lutsk, Kyiv, Poltava, Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk.) The conference will feature advanced workshops by technical experts from Fisher & Paykel, Bear and other manufacturers of intensive care technology.

To help prevent birth complications and strengthen maternal and children’s health, CCRF has also distributed thousands of copies of prenatal handbooks and prenatal vitamins to mothers in several provinces. Most recently, CCRF’s Kyiv staff secured over $100,000 worth of children’s vitamins from Bristol Myers Squibb to accompany the airlift.

Later this year, CCRF will celebrate its 10th Anniversary with a national convention to be held in New Jersey. Since 1989, CCRF has delivered more than 1,100 tons of medical aid to Ukraine, valued at over $40 million dollars. At a special fundraising reception in New York City last week, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton praised CCRF as a "remarkable organization that has set new standards for humanitarian assistance and international development." (** See/read/hear the report on this event at Brama's Community Press Page)

For further information about this airlift and CCRF’s medical mission, please call (203)407-0261 or (973)376-5140. CCRF’s web site can be accessed at www.childrenofchornobyl.org or at www.ccrf-iccf.org. Email messages may be sent to info@ccrf-iccf.org.

For information on the press conference at Boryspil Airport on April 28th, please call CCRF’s Kyiv office at +38 (044)228-1870 or 464-1207.

Chornobyl Links
www.brama.com/ukraine

Contact: Alex Kuzma (203)407-0261 (USA); or Pavlo Smirnov (044) 228-1870 (Kyiv)


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