News and top stories
A Visit from the Canadian Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund
On May 20, Dzherelo was pleased to welcome Mrs. Renata Roman, Co-President of the Canadian Children of Chornobyl Fund (Toronto) for a visit to the Centre. Herself a rehabilitation therapist and together with her husband, Mr. Eugene Roman, also a personal benefactor of Dzherelo, Mrs. Roman met with the children, listened to news of recent accomplishments and offered valuable insights and enthusiastic encouragement to both children and staff.
The Canadian Children of Chornobyl Fund has been an important partner of Dzherelo Centre since 1994. Through CCCF the Ukrainian Diaspora of Canada has contributed generously to realizing the construction and operation of the Dzherelo Centre and has supported the growth and development of its rehabilitation and education programs since the very beginning.
In Toronto, CCCF’s “Friends of Dzherelo” support group organizes various charitable events to benefit the children of Dzherelo. Such recent fundraising events took place at St. Sophia, St. Demetrius and Cardinal Josyf Slypyj Ukrainian Catholic Schools in Toronto, where students held dances and other activities to raise money for Dzherelo. One student, deeply moved by a special video presentation created by Friends of Dzherelo, baked 1000 cookies with her mother, decorated them with her friends and sold them at her school for Dzherelo! A big thank you to all!
On May 21, a delegation from the Board and Medical Committee of CCCF, headed by Co-President Dr. Michael Kondracki, participated in the Lviv Opera Benefit Concert for Dzherelo: “For Special Children – with Love”.
15th Anniversary Gala Presentation
February 2008
March 1st, 2008, Help Us Help The Children (HUHTC), a project of Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF), invites you to its 15th Anniversary Gala Presentation at Toronto's Liberty Grand in recognition of its humanitarian assistance to thousands of orphan children in Ukraine.
March 1st, 2008, Help Us Help The Children is bringing a very special part of its Ukraine to the Liberty Grand. Twenty orphan children from the "Harmonia" orphanage in the city of Nikopol, from the Dnipropetrovsk oblast will be joined by performers from Canada and Ukraine in delivering a very special thank you to the many Canadians whose unwavering support has given them hope for a brighter future. The evening will feature spectacular performances, a children's artwork exhibit, a silent auction and numerous surprises.
Please join Help Us Help The Children in celebrating 15 years of dedication to Ukraine's orphans and take this opportunity to better their lives. Together we can ensure that Ukraine's orphans are neither forgotten nor discarded but are capable of growing into a strong and confident new generation.
"The Unnamed Zone" (2006)
Commemorating the 22nd anniversary of mankind's worst nuclear accident in Chornobyl, Ukraine, the Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund (CCCF) is screening "The Unnamed Zone" (2006) by Spanish director Carlos Rodriguez.
The documentary follows the lives of three young Ukrainian children and their families who live close to the exclusion zone that surrounds the destroyed nuclear station. The children reveal their fears, hopes and dreams; and how their young lives have been affected by the cataclysm that occurred years before they were born.
"The Unnamed Zone" is the story of how the legacy of Chornobyl damaged a new generation - the children of the children of Chornobyl. Rodrigues' own take on the documentary is revealing: "after our experiences in Ukraine, we believe that a nuclear disaster has consequences that are far more terrible and complex than its purely medical effects, as they pervade every single aspect of life in the area for several generations."
Chornobyl's legacy to the first irradiated generation is a still unfolding nightmare. The explosion at the Chornobyl Nuclear Station in April 1986 released radiation equivalent to 500 Hiroshima atomic bombs into the atmosphere. Winds carried a toxic load of radioactive cesium and strontium north over towns of Ukraine, Byelorussia and Europe. A few days later the wind direction switched, blowing the poisonous plume over the unknowing residents of Kyiv, capital of Ukraine.
The communist authorities of the day rallied to suppress the release of critical information to the public. The biggest strategic error in dealing with the disaster was the 24-hour (or more) delay in evacuating the town of Prypiat'; this caused the greatest damage by exposing tens of thousands of people, within 24 hours, to a 'lifetime' radiation dose. Four days after the accident, thousands of people were required to celebrate May Day in the streets in Kyiv, Minsk and Moscow, exposing them to danger. It is now known that had authorities immediately advised people to take prophylactic action - a few iodine drops - thousands of thyroid cancers could have been prevented. Instead, cases of thyroid cancer as well as leukemia and breast cancer are on the rise in the population that was irradiated 22 years ago. Psychological consequences of this disaster are difficult to measure; people suffer from symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder to this day.
The screening of "The Unnamed Zone" will be preceeded by an introductory talk by Marko Horbatsch, PhD., atomics physics professor at York University, who has written on the societal and health issues related to the Chornobyl disaster. Following the screening, questions from the audience will be answered by panel members: Marko Horbatsch, Myroslava Romach M.Sc. M.D. FRCPC, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Roman Stepczuk, President of the Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund.
When: May 21st 2008, 7 p.m.
Where: St. Vladimir's Institute, 620 Spadina Avenue, Toronto.
The event is free. Donations to the Children Of Chornobyl Canadian Fund will be accepted at the door. Tax receipts will be provided for donations over $20.00.
