Born From Pain: The Children of Chornobyl
by Joseph Sywenkyj

On April 26, 1986, reactor #4 at the Chornobyl* Atomic Energy Station in northern Ukraine exploded. As a result, an estimated 260 million curies of radiation were released. This is approximately 200 times more radiation than was released by the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Radiation from Chornobyl rained down on unsuspecting victims and their unborn children in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia contaminating some of the world's richest soil and condemning millions of people to future illnesses and death.

Recently The New York Times reported that Ukraine's infant mortality rate stands at 21 deaths per 1000 live births. This is about three times higher than the European average. In a hospital in Volyn, Ukraine, a doctor told me that there are regions in Ukraine where the average is closer to 30 deaths per 1000 live births. In the past five years, Ukraine's population has declined from 52 million to fewer than 50 million. Currently, Ukraine and Belarus are the only two nations in the world experiencing a decline in their overall population. Also, several studies have shown that since Chornobyl, birth defects due to chromosome damage have doubled.

The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF), a non-profit humanitarian aid organization, arranged for me to travel to Ukraine last summer to document the aftereffects of radiation on children and the conditions in which many of these children live. I traveled for four weeks and photographed children with cancer and severe birth defects. I was touched by the courage of children who were undergoing cancer treatment. Many were only six or seven years old, yet they seemed to carry the weight of adulthood on their faces.

In several orphanages I witnessed and photographed an absolute nightmare. Half-naked children in tattered clothing lay on urine soaked wooden floors. Legs and bodies were contorted in every angle but straight. If all children are angels, these children had their wings clipped and were thrown into a living hell.

Chornobyl's last operating reactor (#3) was officially shut down on December 15, 2000. The 15th anniversary of the disaster was April 26, 2001. The public needs to be informed that exposure to the radioactive fallout of Chornobyl continues to destroy lives. The total number of those affected may not be realized for at least another fifteen years.

Today Ukraine is facing a health crisis. The quiet cries for help from sick children must be heard. Informing the public of the health effects of Chornobyl will give a voice to these innocent but unfortunate children.

THE WORLD CAN NOT AFFORD TO IGNORE WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN UKRAINE. WE MUST LEARN FROM THIS NUCLEAR DISASTER.

The US Library of Congress and the National Geographic Society recommend the Ukrainian spelling of Chornobyl instead of "Chernobyl," the spelling used during the Soviet era.

Photographs and text © Joseph Sywenkyj