GFA In The News

Northwest families offer fresh air for Chernobyl’s youth
For many, the Chernobyl nuclear-plant disaster is long forgotten, but not for those who still live with the environmental, social and economic effects of the explosion. Since the mid-1990s, groups such as Children of Chernobyl have brought youths like Lena Serhiyevich to the U.S. for a temporary refuge from the radioactive and social fallout.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011140142_chernobyl21m.html

$15,000 Raised to Start Cherikov Church
Walla Walla, Washington. January 2008 — Andrei and his mother live on the other side of the world in the village of Cherikov in the small country of Belarus.  Belarus is located just west of Russia and was formerly part of the USSR.
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Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster Effects Ongoing
Stanwood/Camano News — Some local families have chosen to reach their arms halfway around the world to help young Russian children suffering with health problems caused from a debris field of contamination left from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 – a disaster that occurred before they were born.
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Host Families Host Belarus Kids
How does one explain the feeling of sending a child halfway around the world to be cared for by strangers, people who don’t speak the youth’s language or know her culture? For a Belorussian woman whose child is making her third summer visit to Billings, it boils down to “trust, gratitude and, I would say, hope.”
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Laurel couple opens home and hearts to boy from Belarus
On April 25 and 26, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear power accident occurred at Chernobyl in the former USSR (now Ukraine). The Chernobyl nuclear power plant had four reactors. While testing reactor number four, numerous safety procedures were disregarded. At 1:23 am. the chain reaction in the reactor went out of control, creating explosions and a fireball which blew off the reactor’s heavy steel and concrete lid.
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