Decade
of Resistance 
shundahai@shundahai.org
Shundahai Network
Dedicated to Breaking
the Nuclear Chain
Shundahai is a Newe (Western Shoshone) word meaning "Peace and Harmony with all Creation"
April 12, 2006
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20 Years Later, Memories of Chernobyl Run Deep
It was the day that changed the world and Nadia Zastavna's life. It was a picture-perfect spring day and she was busy in her kitchen as her 4-month-old son slept peacefully in his cradle, when Zastavna heard a news brief over the radio about a minor fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power station. Nothing to worry about, everything under control, the announcer said. The then 30-year-old mother didn't give a second thought to the mishap so far away. Little did she or millions of her countrymen know that less than 500 kilometres from her Ternopil home, hell's fury had broken loose. "People were already dead," she recalled of that fateful day. "Some were dying as they fought the fire and were exposed to high amounts of radiation." By the time the truth of the April 26, 1986, disaster surfaced days later, millions in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia (all in what was then the Soviet Union) had been exposed to the deadly radiation that spewed from Chernobyl's Reactor No. 4. "We all felt the consequences," said Zastavna, who at the time was teaching English at a middle school in Ukraine. "After the catastrophe, you could hardly find one healthy child in class." The years that followed saw dramatic increases in birth defects, neurological disorders and leukemia, as well as thyroid and liver cancer among children, she said. Her own son, Andriy Bortnyk, who was born healthy, grew up a sickly child. Doctors feared the worst when they discovered enlarged lymph nodes when he was 8. But by that time, Zastavna was working for an international aid agency that arranged for her and her son to go to Minnesota, where Andriy was treated for a compromised immune system for more than a year. Today they live in Toronto, where Zastavna works for Children of Chornobyl Canadian Fund helping victims of the nuclear disaster. (The organization uses the Ukrainian spelling of Chernobyl.) A strapping Andriy has his sights sets on becoming a police officer. Zastavna and her son will be in the audience at Roy Thomson Hall Sunday for a commemorative concert marking the 20th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster. "We'll be there to remember the victims and pray that such a catastrophe will never happen again," she said. Presented by the Toronto-based CCCF, the concert aims to "lift the spirit" in memory of those whose lives were sacrificed and those who, two decades later, continue to struggle with serious health problems linked to radiation exposure, fund president and chairman Roman Stepczuk said. Since it was established in 1989, CCCF has raised more than $17 million — most of it in Canada — to help the sick and provide much-needed medical equipment and supplies for treatment centres and hospitals in Ukraine. Though there's no hard data on how many people were affected by radiation from Chernobyl, some studies estimate that 340,000 in the so-called hot spots around the plant died as a result, and as many as 7.1 million in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia succumbed to diseases linked to radiation, Stepczuk noted. Sunday's concert, featuring such ensembles as the Gryphon Trio, the Vesnivka and the Elmer Iseler Singers, will also mark the premiere of Canadian composer Christos Hatzis' powerful Wormwood. Wormwood is the English name for Chernobyl. It is also the English word for Apsinthos, which in the Book of Revelation is the name of the death star that was hurled to Earth, poisoning the planet's waters and people. Tickets for Chernobyl 20 are available through Roy Thomson Hall at 416-872-4255, Ticketmaster at 416-870-8000 or online at http://www.roythomson.com.
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