Revisiting Chernobyl After 25 Years

April 26th will mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion, the worst environmental disaster in history and in exactly one week I will be leaving Seattle and heading to Ukraine and Belarus to commemorate the event and participate in charity work with an organization called the Children of Chernobyl Foundation, San Diego. We will be working with an orphanage in Rudensk, a small town outside of Minsk, the capital city of Belarus, where many of those evacuated from the most contaminated areas eventually resettled.
The Children of Chernobyl Foundation along with the help of tennis star Maria Sharapova will hand deliver supplies, toys and other necessities to the children who live at the orphanage, many of whose parents have passed away due to health problems resulting from the radiation contamination.
I am so excited to be a part of such an amazing trip, which has even more importance with the recent Japanese Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

My involvement in the Children of Chernobyl Foundation began when I was very young. Each summer the organization sponsors a group of children who have been particularly affected by the disaster. Most children come from poor family backgrounds, incidences of cancer, malnutrition, alcoholism and drug abuse. But during their trip kids are given access to medical care, clean food and a unique cultural experience. My family decided to volunteer as a host family when I was still in middle school, and Olya entered our lives. Olya's family lives in the city of Mozyr with her mother and older brother. When she first visited the US, Olya spent the first few weeks in a daze taking in the beach, which she had never seen before and the gigantic supermarkets, unlike anything her family had shopped in.

Our family sort of fell in love with Olya. she became like a sister to me and a third child to my parents. We brought her back summer after summer. She taught me Russian while I taught her English. I taught her how to swim, play Monopoly and the lyrics to the N'Sync album while she taught me all about Russian food and music.

This is turning out to be a pretty long post, but the main point I am trying to make is that I can't wait to embark on this amazing trip. Rather than posting about food, for a few weeks I will be posting about my travels.

Oh.. and after a week in Belarus and Ukraine, I will be heading to Barcelona to visit my dear friend Michelle. But more on that later.

I have 10 flights planned for 17 days, my passport is ready to be stamped and my camera is ready to capture it all. Here we go!

For more on my trip with the Children of Chernobyl Foundation, check out my page on Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of Chernobyl.