Statewide campaign launched to help Chornobyl survivor Vova Malofienko (07/14/96)

Statewide campaign launched to help Chornobyl survivor Vova Malofienko

by Khristina Lew

MILLBURN, N.J. - It was a civics lesson put into practice, with a modern twist. When 20 fifth graders at Millburn Middle School heard that their classmate, Chornobyl survivor Vova Malofienko, might have to return to his native Ukraine next April, they put fingertips to keyboards and e-mailed their protest to senators, representatives and the White House.

Vova's father, Oleksandre, a maintenance mechanic at Tetley Tea Co. in Morris Plains, N.J, was denied labor certification by the U.S. Department of Labor in April, despite efforts by the company to sponsor him. An approval of labor certification could have paved the road to permanent residence status for the family in the United States, and guaranteed 12-year Vova the medical care he still needs. Vova's classmates, under the supervision of guidance counselor Dr. Laura Mardyks and computer teacher Liz Bagish, responded in typical '90s fashion - they logged onto the Internet.

With the assistance of Millburn High School student Adam Rothschild, the fifth graders set up "The Vova Crisis" homepage (http://schools.millburn.org/vova/), which details Vova's plight and provides the casual Internet surfer with the names and addresses of senators and representatives to contact for help.

The homepage also supplies information about the 1986 nuclear power plant explosion in Chornobyl, Ukraine, that brought Vova to the United States in 1990 with an acute case of leukemia, and features photographs of Vova at the White House, where he addressed Hillary Rodham Clinton during a 10th anniversary of Chornobyl program on May 1.

Out of the Millburn homepage grew two others - one out of Princeton, N.J., (http://prism.prs.k12.nj.us:70/0/WWW/OII/chernobyl.html) and another out of Honolulu, Hawaii, (http://hisurf.com/enchanted/alohavova.htm). The Hawaii homepage, explained Dr. Mardyks with a chuckle, was set up after students in Honolulu, surfing the Internet for information about Chornobyl, discovered Vova's plight and wanted to help.

The e-mailing campaign took the other 200 Millburn Middle School fifth graders by storm, and in the final days of the school year, each child wrote a total of 16 letters, including one to Chelsea Clinton.

The e-mailing blitz paid off. Local newspapers began to cover the story of Vova and his father's denial of labor certification. In early June, as Vova's parents and their attorneys at Rodino & Rodino of East Hanover, N.J., the law firm of former New Jersey Congressman Peter Rodino, prepared to appeal the Labor Department's decision, New Jersey State Assemblyman Joel Weingarten visited Vova at Millburn Middle School with an offer of support.

Sens. Bill Bradley and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey joined the campaign by writing letters expressing their interest in Mr. Malofienko's case to the Labor Department. These letters were included in Mr. Malofienko's appeals package. Congressman Robert Torricelli wrote a letter directly to the official handling Mr. Malofienko's case, urging the issuance of labor certification.

"The Vova campaign has shown a group of 10-year-olds that even they have a voice," said Dr. Mardyks.

On June 17, Vova, accompanied by 100 fifth graders from Millburn Middle School, sat in the gallery of the New Jersey State Assembly as the legislative body unanimously approved a resolution urging Labor Secretary Robert Reich to grant Oleksandre Malofienko labor certification. "Vova's continued access to the proper medical care he is receiving in this country is now in jeopardy because his father has been denied extension of his work certificate," Assemblyman Weingarten told the statewide newspaper The Star-Ledger.

On June 20 the Labor Department denied Mr. Malofienko's appeal, claiming that it didn't fall within labor certification guidelines.

Congressman Torricelli vowed to pursue other avenues to keep the Malofienko family in the United States in a statement issued on July 9. "It is not the end of our efforts to help Vova and his family secure a legal basis for staying here in America. I will exhaust every avenue I can to help this touching youngster and his family in their effort to stay here, so that Vova can continue his much needed medical treatment," he said.

The law firm of Rodino & Rodino could not be reached for comment.

Vova's story

When the Chornobyl nuclear power plant exploded in April of 1986, 2-year-old Vova and his family were living in Chernihiv, 60 miles southwest of the complex. At the age of 5 he was diagnosed with leukemia. In the summer of 1990, Vova and seven other Chornobyl children from Ukraine were sponsored by the New Jersey-based Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund to attend actor Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang camp in Connecticut for terminally ill children.

Four of the original eight children have since passed away, said Vova's mother, Olya Matso Malofienko.

Vova was one of the few children with leukemia at the camp who doctors thought might survive. Mrs. Malofienko arrived in the United States in mid-September and at that time Dr. Molly Schwann of the Boston Floating Hospital began administering chemotherapy. Vova's treatment was sponsored by the hospital.

One year later, Vova and his mother moved to New Jersey to continue medical treatment at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, N.J., under the care of Dr. Perri Kamalakav. The two-year treatment was sponsored by the Valerie Fund, explained Nadia Matkiwsky, executive director of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund.

In the spring of 1992, Mr. Malofienko joined his family in New Jersey, and the threesome moved out of the Matkiwsky home and into an apartment in Millburn.

After several jobs, Mr. Malofienko, an engineer, landed a job at Tetley Tea as a master mechanic. In the fall of 1992, Vova, after a failed stint in the second grade a year earlier, began second grade again with his current classmates. "I had no hair, so the kids in the other second grade class laughed at me," he explained matter-of-factly.

Today Vova is a bright, enthusiastic 12-year-old, a self-described "bass fisherman." His leukemia has been in remission for three years. Vova's doctors warned Mrs. Malofienko that leukemia can relapse, and she says that in Ukraine, treatment for leukemia is poor, if non-existent.

In November of 1994, the Tetley Tea Co. agreed to sponsor Mr. Malofienko for a labor certification. The process took a year and a half, cost the Malofienkos thousands of dollars, and required that Tetley Tea advertise Mr. Malofienko's position to American workers. The approval of labor certification would have meant that, of everyone that applied for Mr. Malofienko's job, he was the most qualified, and thereby eligible to apply for permanent residence status in the United States.

In the meantime, Mr. and Mrs. Malo-fienko were required to renew their visas and employment authorizations, permission to work in the United States, every six months. In April of this year, their paperwork was renewed for a one-year period.

Despite his remission, once a month Vova is required to visit his doctor for blood testing, and once a year he undergoes a spinal tap. Last summer Vova fell gravely ill, and Mrs. Malofienko feared he was having a relapse. "Fortunately, it was only a brain infection," she explained.

Mrs. Malofienko is deeply disappointed that her husband was denied labor certification and said that her family is now considering applying for humanitarian parole, a special visa usually issued to political prisoners.

"It would be barbaric and murderous for our government to send this child back to Ukraine," said Mrs. Matkiwsky.

Dr. Mardyks concurs. "Vova is a fabulous kid. These are people who need this country, and we need them. It would be a sad loss for the United States if they were forced to leave - they are a gift to us, and we can't compromise."

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