Following Adi Roche, founder of Ireland’s Chernobyl
Children’s Project, CHERNOBYL HEART opens in the exclusion zone, the most
radioactive environment on earth. From there, Roche travels to Belarus, home to
many of the children she seeks to aid. The film reveals those hardest hit by
radiation, including thyroid cancer patients and children suffering from
unfathomable congenital birth and heart defects.
Despite the fact that 99% of Belarus is contaminated with
radioactive material, many people refuse to leave their homes behind. Asked why
he would not move, the father of a radiation victim replies, “To leave the
motherland where you were born and raised, where your soul is connected to the
earth – I would not want to. To move to a new place is difficult, especially in
terms of a job in Belarus and abroad.”
In Belarus, only 15-20% of babies are born healthy. Roche
comforts children who are born with multiple holes in their heart, a condition
known in Belarus as “Chernobyl heart.” A lucky few will have their heart
problems fixed by Dr. William Novick, who heads the International Children’s
Heart Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children with
congenital or acquired heart disease in developing countries throughout the
world. After saving the life of a young girl suffering from Chernobyl heart and
being humbled by her parents’ gratitude, Dr. Novick affirms, “I appreciate this
is a bit of a miracle for them…but we have a certain responsibility to these
kids.” (Excerpt from hbo.com)
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