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Children of Chernobyl
Background
The following exchange of email happened in October of 1992, when Tom Holloway in the UK sent out an email message
on the Chatback listserv. My students, in West Windsor/Plainsboro Upper Elementary School, in New Jersey, responded to Tom's request for greetings and good wishes, and were astounded at the reply that arrived in our mailbox the next morning. See what the power of the Internet can do, with only email....(Ferdi Serim)
The Exchange
Part 1, Tom's original message
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 1992 12:08:30 BST
From: Tom Holloway <xuegx@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: Children of Chernobyl
To: Multiple recipients of list CHATBACK <CHATBACK@SJUVM.BITNET>
Status: OR
There are 40 children from the contaminated area
around the Chernobyl Nuclear Station staying with
families in Royal Leamington Spa for a month. They
are here to enjoy long periods outdoors and to
help to regain lost immunities with a diet totally
free of radioactive contamination.
I have invited the two teachers with them, Irina
Gridojevna and Zinaida Koltovich, to visit me
tomorrow Tuesday October 20th at 4.30 (3.30 GMT)
to write about their experiences. If anyone is
online near that time and would like to send a
short greeting or a question I'll try to respond
immediately.
My aim is to show our two Byelorussian colleagues
that computer communications is for children as
much as for grown-ups. If we can demonstrate
that, it might be possible to bring individual
'Children of Chernobyl' to a terminal for further
exchanges.
+--------------------------+
! Tom Holloway !
! t.holloway@warwick.ac.uk !
+--------------------------+
Part 2: Our Response
As soon as I saw Tom's message, I got up from my terminal and went to the classroom who I knew would have computer
the following morning at 8:30 (3.30 GMT), to ask their agreement to postpone our scheduled activity in order to write to kids
from Chernobly. "What's Chernobyl?" asked students who were only 3 at the time. We explained the tragedy and asked them to think about what they could write to express caring and gain insight about the situation.
The next morning, Ms. Stevens' entire sixth grade class entered the lab, and after a brief discussion and sharing of ideas, set
about to writing. By the end of class, each student had created, saved and printed to text file an individual message,
according to their interest, personality and capability. The files were transferred from the file server to my MAC, bundled into
a single text file, using the Unity utility from America Online, and sent off to Tom Holloway.
Part 3: The Reply
That evening, I received the following reply, while checking my mail at home:
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1992 17:16:53 BST
Sender: "SJU Chatback Planning Group" <CHATBACK@SJUVM.BITNET>
From: Tom Holloway <xuegx@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: From two Byelarussian teachers.
To: Multiple recipients of list CHATBACK <CHATBACK@SJUVM.BITNET>
Status: OR
A LETTER FROM IRINA AND NATASHA
-------------------------------
Dear friends
Thank you for your letters 40 children and
four adults came on Monday to Leamington Spa from
Byelarussia. It took us more than two days to
come from Minsk to Leamington.
30 children aged from 7 to 14 are from the
contaminated areas (Gomel Mogilyov and Rechitsa).
10 children are from an orphanage for children
with learning disabilities not far from Minsk
(Cherven).
Everyone is enjoying their stay and we are doing
lots of interesting things. The children have
been horse-riding, bowling, folk-dancing, playing
games, learning English.
Soon we will go to Blackpool for the day to see
the illuminations.
TOM ASKS QUESTIONS
You are from Byelarussia but the accident took
place in Ukraine. Why the difference?
[Irina says...] 70% of the radioactive fallout was
on Byelarussia.
How does that affect daily life for the children
in these areas?
[Irina says...] The children are very weak and they
catch cold more often than other children from
clean areas. It takes a long time for them to
recover.
Are you still living in an area which can be
called contaminated?
[Irina says...] yes -- some areas are still
contaminated but not severely.
Are there people still living in these severely
contaminated areas?
[Irina says...] yes -- but they will all be removed
in time and most of them have now gone.
How does the accident in the past affect the daily
life of the children NOW.
[Irina says...] in the areas close to Chernobyl
they are not permitted to go to the forest or to
swim in the lakes or to fish. They certainly cannot
eat the fish! But they will mostly be evacuated
from all these areas, but this takes time -- it
can't be done immediately.
Does it affect the diet that the children now
have?
They need lots of fruit and vegetables and clean
food which is organically grown. Lots of clean air
-- that is why we are here.
I have found that the children staying with me are
not happy to eat vegetables.
[Irina says...] That is probably because they are
just not used to them, not for any other reason.
How did the accident affect YOUR lives when it
happened?
[Irina says...] We had terrible headaches at that
time. But we were not given information
immediately. From the government it was several
weeks before we learnt what had happened. We try
to get our children abroad to improve their health
and to boost their immune system. We still do not
know about the future of the children and the
long-term effects. My own daughter has some
problem with thyroid -- but almost 50% of young
people have such problems, maybe not severe now but
who will know for the future?
I want to finish by thanking all those people all
over the world who are helping us, or trying to
help us. People are so friendly to us and our
children are made warmly welcome by their families.
We were told for many years that the English are so
reserved, but we find them very open -- I am sure
that this is true of people in America and
Australia and all other countries -- when we can
meet.
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