Covid-19 outbreak at Belarus
orphanage
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| Coronavirus pandemic graffiti in Brest, Belarus (ANSA) |
The founder of Irish charity Chernobyl Children
International, Adi Roche, says the coronavirus has “invaded” an orphanage they
are supporting in Belarus, which is home to vulnerable children.
By Lydia O’Kane
An orphanage in Belarus is battling an outbreak of the
Covid-19 virus.
The Vesnova orphanage is home to over 170 vulnerable
children and young adults with severe disabilities, genetic disorders and
weakened immune systems. Around 13 children were diagnosed with the virus last
week but cases since then have trebled.
The orphanage is supported by Irish charity, Chernobyl
Children International.
Its founder and Voluntary CEO, Adi Roche, said the news has
been shattering.
Aiding the most vulnerable
“I’m still stunned by a phone call I got last Wednesday from
some staff members in a children’s institution which we founded over twenty
years ago which is full of children affected by Chernobyl. … We got the phone
call begging for help…”
She told Vatican News that there are no painkillers, cough
bottles or sanitizers, and the children’s institution is in the middle of
nowhere.
The Vesnova orphanage is just one of the institutions in
Belarus where the charity is working to support children. The aim is to help
them regain their right to a family life and to end the
institutionalisation of children, in conjunction with authorities in Belarus.
The CEO said that the state has now responded to the
outbreak, and has sent 20 experts who are now helping the institution. The
charity itself is also sending aid including PPE equipment.
Amid this dramatic situation, the Irish charity is joining
with other disability organisations in Belarus to call for proper social
distancing measures to be put in place at these institutions in order to halt
the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
They are also proposing that children who are mobile be
transferred to summer camps where social distancing will be easier to maintain.
“We cannot abandon the children,” Ms Roche said. “We’re here
for the long haul… We’ve been involved with the children of Chernobyl and the
children of Belarus and Ukraine since 1986 and no matter how bad the rest of
the world is at the moment we are not going to turn our backs (on them).”
Remembering Chernobyl
The outbreak of the coronavirus came just days before the 34th anniversary
of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster which was observed on the 26th April
as United Nations Chernobyl Remembrance Day.
“The nature of the virus and the nature of radioactivity are
actually really, really very similar. It’s this invisible enemy that recognizes
no boundaries…and it goes on doing its damage. The only difference I hope and
pray is that once we get the antidote to the virus that will be the end,
whereas unfortunately, the consequences of Chernobyl go on into infinity”, Ms
Roche said.
The effects of forest fires
Another situation which has also impacted the lives of
children in the region are the recent forest fires which began following an
unusually dry weather spell on April 3rd.
At one stage the blaze was just one kilometre away from the
abandoned Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Ms Roche said that, as a result of these fires, eight
villages in Ukraine were burned to the ground in radiation zones.
These people are now homeless, and there are six to seven
hundred children who are without a roof over their heads. They have been left
standing in the clothes they were wearing at the time of the fires.
“Before we even got the Covid bad news we’d been spending
time raising funds and getting clothes, shoes and basic medicines together”,
the Voluntary CEO said, “We need to move those children but we can’t because of
the pandemic. Covid-19 means that these children have to stay where they are
with their families. In a sense, were fighting on two fronts with both the
virus and the effects of the recent forest fires,” she said.
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