BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

31/10/2008

The children of Belarus deserve better

Each summer, 40-60,000 Belarusian children leave their homeland to spend their summers with host families around the world. They do this as respite from the land they live in which was contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 22 years ago. The trips improve their immune systems by giving their bodies a break from the radiation in their food and water, and items sent home help their families and neighbours. Quinte's Children of Chernobyl is one such registered charity that brings children to Canada each summer as a part of this worldwide effort.

As of now, the children will not return to Canada next summer. Nor will any Belarusian children go abroad on recuperative trips, other than to Italy. This is because at the end of this past summer, a family in California decided not to send their host child home on the set date which her group of 25 children were to depart. After hosting the girl for nine summers, they decided that she should stay with them, despite knowing the conditions of her trip and the consequences of her failure to return. While the girl has stated that she wants to stay, she is a child who has a legal guardian at home in Belarus, and the conditions of her travel with the program were that she return to her legal guardian as she had eight summers previous. The result: Belarus will no longer allow children to travel if they can not be guaranteed the return of their underage citizens. Understandable. Would a Canadian parent send their child abroad if they couldn't be guaranteed their return?

The situation of not returning the child home is caused by two things. The first is the incredible attachment that develops between the child and host family after so many memorable summers spent together, watching them grow and see and try new things. But sometimes, as in this case, the attachment becomes so strong that the host family can't see where to draw the line. They begin to think of the child as their own and forget that they have a loving family waiting at home in Belarus. In some cases host families have hyphenated children's last names to include the host family name, have demanded to be entitled to the number of weeks per summer that they desire without consideration of the number of weeks that the real parents want to send them for, they have referred to the child as "my son" or "my daughter", and have frowned upon the child when they speak Russian instead of English. In extreme cases, some attempt to adopt children who have families at home in Belarus based on the idea that because they have more money, their home is better for the child. Loving and caring for a visiting child, and treating him or her as part of the family is healthy, but a few out of many forget that these children are someone else's children. Further still, some organizations have been operating without registered charitable status, which goes against the rules of Belarus' Department of Humanitarian Aid, and causes them to question all organizations helping their children. All of these things add up, and the child in California broke the camel's back.

The second cause is the idea that the West knows best, and that because we are from North America and we have this sort of politico-judicial system, we can do as we want with other people's kids, just because we think it's best. By keeping the girl in the US, this American family has disrespected Belarusian laws. While I would never question the love that the host family has for this girl, I question whether they feel a sense of entitlement to determine her future due to the fact that they have invested so much into helping her.

There is one hope for the continuation of these programs in Canada. In order for children to be allowed to visit, our department of Foreign Affairs would have to sign an agreement with Belarus stating that in the case of a Chernobyl child who refuses to go home, our government will enforce their safe return and not offer an underage citizen of Belarus the option of extending their visa. If this agreement were signed, the program could resume, and thousands of children could continue to benefit from our uncontaminated environment and clean food during the summer months.

For the last seven summers, our family has, with sadness but without hesitation, returned our host child to his loving mother in Belarus at the end of each summer. Out of respect for his family and his country, we play by the rules. I am urging our government to sign the agreement which Belarus has laid out so that the many Canadian families that have played by the rules for so many years can continue to do so, for the benefit of the children.

Amy Romagnoli

Source:

http://www.niagarathisweek.com/opinions/article/216623

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