Nastya ready to enjoy Christmas in Macroom with the Lynch family
18-YEAR-OLD NASTYA WILL COME TO MACROOM ONCE AGAIN THANKS TO ADI ROCHE’S CHERNOBYL CHARITY
THERE will be a special sleigh ride escort into Dublin airport soon as a group of children with special needs from Chernobyl prepare to stay throughout the county with host families as part of Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International (CCI) Charity.
The Christmas Rest and Recuperation Programme gives the children, who come from impoverished backgrounds and state-run institutions, a health-boosting reprieve from Chernoby’s toxic environment and high levels of radiation.
Amongst the 40-strong group is Nastya Sivakova (18), who will once again stay with her loving hosts Sharon and Danny Lynch, and their two sons in Macroom.
Nastya lives in a CCI-pioneered Independent Living Facility on the grounds of a Vesnova Children’s Mental Asylum in Belarus. In this state-ofthe-art complex, Nastya has the ability to work with occupational therapists, nurses and teachers to enhance her ability to care for herself in the hopes of one day being freed from an institutionalised life.
Nastya has been part of the Rest and Recuperation programme for nine years and stays every year with the Lynchs, who are part of CCI’s Lee Valley Outreach Group. Over the years they have developed a special bond with Nastya, who is considered one of the family.
Nastya has had a rollercoaster year, including being hospitalised for three weeks in an emergency situation the night before she was due to fly out of Ireland. The Lynch family held a bed-side vigil for Nastya, who then made a full recovery thanks to the dedicated staff in Cork University Hospital. Not long before, Nastya’s host brother, Dean, whisked her out of her wheelchair and onto the dance-floor at a family wedding for her first dance.
Nastya was abandoned to an institution in Belarus as a baby. She has cerebral palsy and, until CCI’s intervention, had never been outside the walls of the institution because she didn’t have a wheelchair. She never experienced simple things such as the wind. Since she started visiting Ireland nine years ago as part of CCI’s Rest and Recuperation Programme, she has blossomed. Her visits to Ireland have given her many opportunities; her language skills have improved; she has learnt English and, more importantly, it has given her a sense of family, whcih had been missing.
Next Tuesday, December 18, Nastya, along with a number of others, will fly into Dublin airport, and their host families will be ready to once again help them take part in the Christmas Rest and Recuperation Programme.
Since 1986, Chernobyl Children International has brought 25,500 children from Chernobyl’s affected regions to Ireland for the life-prolonging programme. Studies have shed much-needed light on the benefits of rest and recuperation to the children, who live in some of the world’s most radioactive-contaminated lands in the affected regions.