At the end of April, International Program Director SOCMED, Maria Vitagliano visited Ukraine with her planned working trip. Besides coordination and assessment of the activities, the Program Director foremost dedicated her trip to the anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.
Together with the Green Cross Team Maria Vitagliano took part in the events to commemorate the Chernobyl accident, which took place in the town of Slavutich. The Program Director gave interviews for local television, met with families and children and together visited the Chernobyl museum. Also she met with representatives of the city council, liquidators of the Chernobyl accident. Also she got acquainted with the participants of the ecological conference and communicated to the organizers. Together with the GCU Executive Director Yuriy Sapiga and regional project coordinators Elena Germanovich and Tatiana Boyko, as well as with the Mayor of Slavutich, Yuriy Fomichev and ex-Mayor Vladimir Udovichenko she laid flowers at the memorial and so that to express her solidarity and commitment in solving the problems associated with the consequences of the nuclear catastrophe.
The whole staff of Green Cross and Coordinators from all regions in Ukraine as well as foreign partners from Green Cross family sincerely congratulate Maksym Tymoshenko, President of Green Cross Ukraine on awarded title of Professor (Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the decision of the Academic Council of the National Academy of Culture and Arts as per April 20, 2017, minutes No.12). He is the youngest among those honoured with the title of Professor in Ukraine.
Green Cross Ukraine Team pursues its cooperation with Green Cross Switzerland (GCCH) under the International Social and Medical Care Program. Together with its partners it provides medical, social and educational assistance to people who endure the consequences of the Chernobyl accident and living in the 3rd and 4th Chernobyl zones.
The Environmental Toxin Report 2016 from the environmental organisations Green Cross Switzerland and Pure Earth, New York, provides information about the world’s ten most dangerous sources of environmental toxins and quantifies the magnitude of the adverse effects on health caused by toxic substances worldwide in DALYs (source: media information by GC Switzerland.
Although the majority of environmental toxins are contributors to global morbidity and mortality, few publications are available on this subject. At the same time, pollution is increasing as a result of the rapid expansion of urbanisation and industrialisation and the informal economy, particularly in low and middle-income countries (LMIC).
This year due to cooperation with new partners, "Eco Summer Therapy Camp" project was successfully implemented under the International SOCMED Program in Ukraine.
The project was made possible thanks to the coordination and financial support of Green Cross Switzerland (GCCH) within the International SOCMED Program led by Maria Vitagliano, along with the support and involvement of local partners in Ukraine.
This year the youth exchange project brought together young people from 6 countries. A group of 39 children from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Japan, Italy and Switzerland, all took part in a Green Cross summer camp program. Youth Camp was implemented with the support and coordination of ch.Stiftung and held as part of Green Cross Social and Medical Care Program with the participation of Green Cross organizations in Ukraine, Belarus, Japan, Italy and Switzerland.
For the second year in a row due to the invitation and support of GHS Nonprofit Közhasznü Kft. and SENAT Aktiengesellschaft Vaduz children's camp in Hungary was organized for internally displaced children from the Eastern Ukraine. The project started last year and has been successfully implemented this summer thanks to the coordination support of Green Cross Switzerland in collaboration with Green Cross Ukraine with the participation of the local Ukrainian partners from the Department of Youth and Family Policy of the Zhytomyr Oblast State Administration and Services for Children and Families Affairs of the Kyiv Regional State Administration.
Modern socio-demographic situation in the Zhytomyr region remains complex and ambiguous. Demographic indicators are deteriorated in the areas affected by radioactive contamination: the birth rate decreases and mortality increases, the working-age population migrates from those contaminated areas in less polluted areas, other cities and countries.
Hundreds of thousands of families and children reside, grow up and develop in conditions of prolonged exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation and other unfavorable factors after Chernobyl period. It is noticed that all the children are have higher level of pathological prevalence. Children with diffuse toxic goiter are observed significantly higher prevalence and intensity of dental caries and its complications. There is a greater percentage of destruction of periodontal tissues, which indicates the need for further detailed study of the dental status in thyroid comorbidity to establish causal relationships. In the context of the planned rehabilitation within the Zhytomyr region figures look heterogeneously. Low level of dental health is indicated in children living in Olevsk, Emilchinsky, Novograd-Volynskiy, Korosten and Ovruch areas. There is a need in the treatment of teeth at the base of "Caries Prevention" center at the Zhytomyr Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital. Almost one in eight people living in the contaminated area is in a state of depression, anxiety, emotional instability, stress, conflicts and crises. People are in downbeat mood about their future. Topical issue is the system of social security and assistance to the most "vulnerable" sectors of the population (large families, low income and asocial families).
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy. There are many myths about the accident, the official figures are not always accurate. Nevertheless, it has become the most serious accident in the history of nuclear power.
April 26, 1986 there was an explosion on the fourth unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that completely destroyed the reactor. The so-called active accident phase lasted 10 days. All this time, very intense emissions of radioactive elements released in the atmosphere, including the isotopes of Uranium, Plutonium, Iodine-131, Cesium-134, Cesium-137, Strontium-90.
According to the official sources more than 200 000 sq. km. were radioactively contaminated. Approximately 70% of the territory of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine was espoused to radiation fallout. The accident affected not only modern Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, which is located near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but also Eastern Thrace, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Ireland, France (including Corsica), Great Britain and the isle of Man.
