EVERYONE remembers when they heard the news of the Chernobyl disaster and 22 years later its effects are still being felt.

In April 1986 one of four reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station, close to the Ukrainian Belarus border, exploded and the resulting radiation cloud spread right across Europe – it is considered the world’s worst nuclear accident.

Experts claimed that by 2001 almost 2,000 cases of thyroid cancer could be directly linked to the disaster and doctors working in the Chernobyl area have noticed an increase in such cases among older children.

Earlier this month a distribution team from Operation Christmas Child distributed shoeboxes of gifts to children at schools in three villages within 50km of the reactor.

Luba Kulbich, a social worker in the area, said there were about 1000 children who went to school in the 50km zone. “It is a very poor area and there is nothing for the people and almost no food.

“We see a lot of blood problems and leukaemia is very common. Lots of kids are in Kiev because of these health problems. They have a very low immune system and they get sick very quickly. They are not smaller than other children just weaker.

“The radiation level here is not very dangerous now, you can live in it, but it’s enough that we have bad health problems. When children are born in the Chernobyl area, which includes Kiev, they often are not 100 per cent healthy.”

She added that the gifts in the shoeboxes had a positive effect on the children. “First of all they give positive emotions, such as love and joy, to the kids,” she said. “They feel that somebody loves them in this cruel world.

“With all these broken homes and empty houses in this area they get a little bit of light in their lives when you bring these gifts to the children. They are smiling and are happy that somebody does take care of them.”

A total of 145,600 shoeboxes, some of which were collected in the Scarborough area, were distributed in Kiev city.

Victor Kulbich is an organiser with the Ukrainian Central Christian Corporation which works with street children in the city. He said there were a 27,000 children on the city’s streets and 150,000 across Ukraine.

“Life in Ukraine is not easy,” he said. “There are difficulties in families, such as alcoholism or no fathers, there are a lot of single mothers. The children have no one to teach them to read or count.

“We teach them Christianity. Volunteer doctors check them and if necessary give them medicine. Not all of them are Christians and that isn’t our main point.”

Chris Thomson, the distribution team leader, answered the criticism that the Samaritan’s Purse project placed an emphasis on a Christian message.

“At the end of the day we are a Christian organisation, that’s what our principles are, that’s where we stand,” he said. “If we get the chance to share that we will do. But I would never impose my views on anyone.”

He added the trip had been a success. “I think it was good to see people I’d met before and for me to see the differences in their environment and buildings,” he said.

“There were lots of smiley faces from the kids. I was quite surprised with the amount of older kids in the Chernobyl area who are now beginning to suffer from thyroid cancer and blood cancers. These kids are living, breathing and eating in that environment. It doesn’t give them much of a chance of recovering.”

From The Scarborough Evening News on Monday, January 28, 2008.