BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

20/06/2007

Belarussian children receive checkups

By Carolyn Casey

Children from Belarus lined up at Nash Urgent Care on Tuesday to receive free physicals and be checked for possible exposure to radiation.

The local chapter of the American Belarussian Relief Organization invites about 40 children each summer as a way to introduce them to American culture and provide their bodies rest from a radiation-filled environment. Families in the Rocky Mount and Nashville areas host the children, said Sam Petteway, the local director of the organization.

The water, ground and air in Belarus are contaminated with radiation from the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. And the radiation will continue to affect Belarussians for hundreds of years, causing cancer and thyroid problems, among others, said Marina Gatalskaya, one of the chaperones from Belarus who has traveled to Rocky Mount the last six years.

?Basically, it?s a chance for them to have a break and be in a healthy environment,? said Heather Rodgers.

Rodgers and her husband, Bryan, have hosted 15-year-old Maryna Matsiushkova for six summers.

The 42 children and chaperones will receive free eye, dental and physical exams during their six-week stay in the United States, Petteway said. Nash Day Hospital conducted the lab tests like drawing blood, Nash Urgent Care provided physicals, Optometric Eye Care Center performed eye examinations and provided glasses, and each child?s host family arranged dental work.

?The greatest benefit of the program is the health care because it?s so dated there,? Pam Bodiford said.

Bodiford and her husband, Charles, are hosting 15-year-old Ira Vladymtseva for the second time and visited her in Belarus earlier this year.

The parents are grateful for the medical care their children receive in the United States, but also for the things they take back to Belarus like toothpaste, floss and clothes, Gatalskaya said.

Most of the children, who range from 7 to 17 years old, are orphans or considered underprivileged, Petteway said.

?We?re very thankful to the American people who pay attention to us,? Gatalskaya said. ?They gain nothing from this.?

Each host family pays for their child?s expenses from their flight to their visas, Petteway said. Rocky Mount has one of the largest chapters in the country.

?It?s been a wonderful, wonderful blessing to expand our family in a special way,? Rodgers said. ?Now we don?t say goodbye, we say see you next year.?

Source:

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/20/checkups.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=7