Slavutych to bring CCRF's humanitarian aid cargo to Sevastopol (07/16/00)

Slavutych to bring CCRF's humanitarian aid cargo to Sevastopol

by Roma Hadzewycz

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Taking advantage of a visit to New York by the staff ship of the Ukrainian navy, the Slavutych, the New Jersey-based Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund on Friday, July 7, delivered five skids full of humanitarian aid destined for the ship's home port of Sevastopol, Ukraine.

The Slavutych was in New York harbor to participate in the International Naval Review 2000, held on July 4 as a prelude to Operation Sail 2000. The Kamchatka class command and control ship was the only military ship from Eastern Europe to participate in the naval review.

According to Cmdr. Volodymyr V. Leschenko, deputy to the Slavutych's commanding officer, the ship's participation was arranged on the level of government-to-government contacts involving the foreign affairs and defense ministers of Ukraine and their U.S. counterparts.

A press conference announcing the humanitarian aid shipment was held on the dock at Brooklyn's Port Authority Pier 7 next to the naval vessel. The 1.8-ton cargo includes antibiotics, intravenous fluids and starter kits, surgical needles and syringes, gowns, analgesics and sterile gloves provided by the Catholic Medical Mission Board.

On the dock next to the Slavutych, Alex Kuzma of the CCRF announces
the organization's latest humanitarian aid shipment. To the right of Mr. Kuzma are
Cmdr. Volodymyr V. Leschenko, Nadia Matkiwsky, a founder and board member
of the CCRF, and Tanya Fesenko Vena, CCRF financial director.

Roma Hadzewycz

Alexander Kuzma, executive director of the CCRF, noted that the supplies will be used for emergency service and to meet the health care needs of the people of Sevastopol.

Valued at over $85,000, the medical supplies are to be shipped to the naval hospital in Sevastopol. The CCRF noted that Sevastopol and other Crimean ports each summer host thousands of children from the region contaminated by radioactive fallout from the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. Many of those children require treatment and long-term screening for cancer and immune deficiencies.

"We are very grateful for your role in providing essential medical treatment, rest and recuperation for these unfortunate children," Mr. Kuzma stated. "This shipment is but a small token of our appreciation and we hope that this will be just the first gesture in establishing a long-term partnership with the medical community of Crimea, and Sevastopol in particular."

"At the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund we feel it is our privilege to help the people of Ukraine as they struggle to build a new society based on democratic, free market principles while protecting human rights and cultural diversity," he continued, underlining that "the success of this emerging democracy is vital to the long-term security interests of the United States, Europe and the entire global community."

Speaking on behalf of the Slavutych and Ukrainian naval forces, Cmdr. Leschenko, said he was pleased to participate in this aid shipment and "to be able to help our countrymen." He also expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian American community in the United States for all it has done to assist Ukraine.

The shipment due to arrive in Ukraine via the Slavutych is part of a larger shipment of $2 million worth of cargo that the CCRF is sending to Ukraine this summer. Since 1990 the fund has arranged 25 airlifts and eight sea shipments, delivering more than 1,300 tons of medical aid valued at $45 million to hospitals that provide treatment and screening for children affected by Chornobyl and deal with other public health crises facing Ukraine.

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In related news, according to a spokesperson for Staten Island University Hospital, the hospital donated medical equipment worth $40,000 to the Ukrainian government. Officers and physicians from the Slavutych on July 7 toured the hospital and participated in an exchange of medical information. Among the items presented by the president and chief executive officer of hospital, Andrew J. Passeri, were a bronchoscope, components of laparoscopic systems, an anesthesia machine and a ventilator.

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