Top Stories / CCRDF launches 32d Airlift to Mark 20th Anniversary of Nuclear Disaster

 

First Lady of  Ukraine Kateryna Yushchenko, Ambassador to Ukraine John E. Herbst, the USDOS Director of Humanitarian Programs to  Europe and Eurasia, Gerald Oberndorfer and other dignitaries gathered at Boryspil International Airport on Thursday April 20 to welcome a major donation of medical supplies from the U.S.-based Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund (CCRDF). The delivery of this humanitarian assistance was sponsored and funded by the United States Department of State, working in partnership with CCRDF.

"This airlift is a milestone in our 17 years of providing medical aid to Ukraine ," said CCRDF Executive Director Alexander Kuzma. This 32nd medical airlift is valued at $1.7 million dollars. Combined with the sea shipment just delivered by the Department of State to Odessa , CCRDF will supply a total of $2.7 million dollars worth of medical aid to its partner hospitals to mark the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl accident. Since 1989, CCRDF has partnered with the U.S. Department of State's "Operation Provide Hope" to provide over $55 million dollars in medical equipment, hospital supplies, and medicines to medical centers in nearly every oblast of Ukraine . The Fund has focused most of its efforts on neonatal intensive care and pediatric oncology, with additional programs in infant cardiac surgery and orphanage aid.

 

Chornobyl Fund Launches 32nd Airlift to Mark 20th Anniversary of Nuclear Disaster Kyiv, April 20, 2006      First Lady of Ukraine Mrs. Kateryna Yushchenko thanks the Children of Chornobyl Relief and Development Fund and the Government for their help in delivering medical supplies to the victims of the Chornobyl accident.  Those responsible for the airlift gather before the shipment. From left: Nadia Matkiwsky, Founder and Administrator CCRDF, Ambassador Herbst, First Lady Mrs. Yushchenko, Gerald Oberndorfer, U.S. Department of State; and Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, founder and President of CCRDF