BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

02/08/2007

Belarus kids thrive during U.S. summer `camp'

Mountain View Baptist families among those sponsoring the kids

ERICA BATTEN

Summer camp conjures up images of games and sketchy food, staying up all night giggling and worrying about my underwear being stolen and put in the freezer.

For some children I met this week, summer "camp" really is about survival. The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl contaminated about 125,000 square miles of land in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, and the effects are still evident today.

Through a program called ABRO, the American Belorussian Relief Organization, children from Belarus, a former Soviet republic, are able to visit the United States for six weeks. Denver-area families, most of whom attend Mountain View Baptist Church, hosted 10 children and an interpreter.

Dentist Gary Jones and North State Medical Care, both in Denver, provided free care. The children were able to play outside without fear of contamination from soil and water. According to ABRO statistics, the six-week visit helps restore the children's immune systems and can improve damage from up to two years of radiation exposure.

The visit resembled summer camp in many ways. The kids, some siblings and some complete strangers, gathered for meals and activities.

This year, the children and their sponsor families went to the beach, played at the lake, drove bumper cars at Hickory Dickory Dock and attended Bible school at Mountain View. They learned some new English words and sampled American food.

Because the children stay with host families, they get homemade meals and get into sibling spats just as they would at home. And for many, home in Belarus is an orphanage.

Lisa and Darin Blalock, who headed up the ABRO project at Mountain View this year, hosted Nastassia, an 8-year-old whom they nicknamed "Anastasia." The Blalocks' daughter, Allison, also 8, shared her bedroom with Nastassia.

"My daughter is like a little mother hen," Lisa Blalock said. "She just took Anastasia under her wing."

For most of the children, being here means a significant improvement in their standard of living -- and not just when it comes to radiation exposure. Blalock says that Nastassia gained 9 pounds during her visit last summer, but added only one more pound to that during the year she was back home. Another child, Siarhei, had 12 cavities, she said. The children come here with few clothes; most of the host families take the children shopping for new ones.

"They come over here with empty suitcases, and they go back with full suitcases," Blalock said.

When Mountain View began participating in the ABRO program in 2004, they were able to raise enough money to host one child.

Next year, pastor Raymond Hamrick, whose daughter also hosted a child this year, hopes to sponsor 15 to 20 children. Host families must pay airfare -- $1,500 -- and living expenses for the children. Church members donate money for activities and trips. And church fundraisers help offset costs to host families.

Blalock says that they hope to get started with fundraisers early this year, with a dinner planned at Capt'n Pete's for September. The church will also send informational videos to area businesses in hopes of earning sponsorships for the children.

Blalock says that her family phones Nastassia frequently while she is back home in Belarus. Nastassia calls the Blalocks her American mama and papa.

"When you get a child," Blalock says, "they become part of your family

Source:

http://www.charlotte.com/494/story/220738.html

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