A Voice from Belarus

It is better to realize the truth through your own immediate experience than to accept without testing the teaching of another.—From The Feminine Face of God by Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins 

After the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl in 1986, Anatoly and other professors and physicians created a foundation, For the Children of Chernobyl. Their goal was to send children abroad for the summers for a reprieve from radiation exposure which impairs their immune systems and has resulted in unprecedented levels of thyroid cancer in children and adults. The first host country to respond to their call for help was India. Before long, the foundation was sending 30,000 children every summer to host families and programs in many countries, including Germany, England, Japan, the U.S., Spain, Italy and France. 

The differences in environmental contaminants between our two countries are striking. In Belarus, better living through chemicals is not a lifestyle option. The economic crisis in the country is so devastating that most people can barely meet basic survival needs. Pesticides are not in heavy use, if used at all. New clothes are not affordable, let alone new carpeting. The use of preservatives, growth hormones and antibiotics in the production of food is almost unheard of. The majority of people don t own cars. On the other hand, in Belarus there are less restrictions on industrial pollution, there are no requirements for disclosure of ingredients in food and other products, and the food, air and water are contaminated by radiation pollution that will affect human health in untold ways for millenniums. 

Despite our differences, some of the outcomes are undeniably similar increased cancer rates and adverse reactions to ordinary products. 

Over the years I have developed more and more allergies, and something strange happens to me when I am exposed to certain smells. It s like something in me opens up and I can smell almost anything so acutely, even objects that are far away from me. It s terrible. I mix up words or say something stupid. My face becomes red and my eyes tear. 

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