BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/08/2006

Higher calling leads Rialto woman to Belarus

Robert Rogers, Staff Writer

RIALTO - Dorothy Lindlahr had it all by some measures. In the mid-1990s, she was young, brash and making big money as a manager at UCLA Medical Center.

By 2001, she was a corporate executive with an out-sized reputation and a luxury apartment in Beverly Hills.

But she was unfulfilled.

"Looking back, it seems like it was all fake," said Lindlahr, 39. "It took me a while to realize I hated the job. The corporate world didn't jibe with my makeup, with who I really am."

So Lindlahr left behind expense accounts and frequent-flyer miles in favor of a higher calling.

The Eisenhower High School graduate and mother of three gave it all up for a career as a therapist specializing in infant massage, a spiritually rewarding career that will take her to eastern Europe to use her healing hands on orphans.

Lindlahr, who grew up in Rialto, has long been concerned about the plight of children affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Now, she has the freedom and will to go there and help.

Lindlahr will accompany a team of American medical professionals in late October to share their techniques with Belarussians and work in facilities for babies with deformities in Vesnova, Belarus.

"It's a little-known fact that children are still to this day born in Belarus with physical deformities from the nuclear fallout," Lindlahr said.

"My mission is to do what I can to make their lives better and to train others to be able to do the same."

It's also a mission of self-sacrifice. Lindlahr is not being paid and is covering her own travel expenses on the 10-day mission.

Lindlahr's travels will be part of Chernobyl Children's Project International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian and medical aid to the 3-to 4-million children the United Nations recognizes as suffering from the effects of a lingering contamination from the nuclear meltdown.

The organization sends small teams of American medical professionals to Belarus for 10-day aid and training tours every month.

Belarus a country of 10.2 million people, about the same square mileage as Kansas and a mostly state-controlled economy took the brunt of the fallout when a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, just across the border in neighboring Ukraine.

Belarus took roughly 70 percent of the fallout, leaving much of the country's agricultural land contaminated, a predicament that circulates radiation throughout the food chain to this day.

Statistics are spotty, and the small, rural nation spends little time on the world's conscience. According to www.ccp-intl.org, a horrifying list of maladies plagues the nation, including a 2,400 percent increase in thyroid cancer and a 250 percent increase in congenital birth deformities.

A documentary on the effects of the disaster, the Academy Award-winning "Chernobyl Heart," had a profound effect on Lindlahr.

"The images of those children suffering are just excruciating," Lindlahr said.

But the film shot with unflinching realism did more than shock and sadden Lindlahr, a mother who said she "loves babies."

It inspired her to act.

"I knew that I could contribute, I could help," Lindlahr said. "I want to teach the nurses how to massage these babies, babies which I could see in the movie were suffering needlessly from lack of stimulation."

Lindlahr, who now lives in Tarzana but still has family in Rialto, will take precautions during her 10-day stay. She will not drink the water or eat locally produced food, and her mouth will be covered at all times when she is outdoors.

But the danger is no deterrent. Lindlahr said she looks forward to teaching parents and caregivers how to massage their babies.

Infant massage is about much more than massage strokes, Lindlahr said.

It's about establishing trust, reading the baby's cues and enhancing the nurturing and loving relationship between parents or caregivers and babies, she said.

Massaging babies might also help reduce pain, trigger deeper sleep and relax the digestive system.

But while Lindlahr is no longer in the world of the corporate elite, she has retained a realistic outlook. She knows that what she can do while in Belarus is small, and the problem is big. The people of Belarus could use much more.

"Hopefully, what I do will help shed more light on this horrible suffering that is ongoing, and inspire more people to get involved, to help."

How to help

Dorothy Lindlahr, 39, a therapist who teaches infant massage at the MommyZone in Tarzana, will accompany a team of American medical professionals in late October to share their techniques with Belarussians and work in facilities for babies with deformities in Vesnova, Belarus.

Lindlahr is conducting a fundraising campaign to help with expenses. Rialto business owners who have any services that they would be willing to offer for fundraising drawings to be held in Rialto, are asked to contact Kathy O'Shea at (909) 875-1213.

All donation checks should be made out to "Infant Massage USA" and are tax deductible.

For more information about the Chernobyl Children's Project International or the Academy Award-winning documentary "Chernobyl Heart," go to www.ccp-intl.org.

Source:

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_4159198