THE Belarussian doctor fought hard to express herself, to do justice to her feelings about the benefits of recuperative breaks abroad for the ailing children of Belarus.
"After one month abroad ... just one month gives five years of a healthier life," she said, almost wonderingly, "five years". One child in her care had had severe liver problems. "After Ireland, his blood tests were so beautiful, the doctor in charge could not believe it. He ordered a repeat test but it was still the same. For the first time in eight years, the child's, tests were near normal ... just from the good, clean food and fresh, clean air." It is another of the great tragedies of Belarus, that loving parents almost beg Western strangers to take their children away to strange countries - anything to restore the colour to their cheeks and some energy to their listless bodies.
Since responding to a 1991 fax appeal from doctors in the affected regions of Belarus, pleading for help for their children, Adi Roche has dedicated her life to the cause of the Children of Chernobyl. As result she has taken a decision have no children of her own.
Over the years since the first appeal, she has been garlanded with awards for her unswerving commitment to breaking the cycle of tragedy that is Belarus and for her fearless tenacity in the teeth of horrendous radiation counts, oppressive bureaucracy and indescribably bleak child institutions.
This week, she is back on the long road to Belarus, along with sidekick Ali Hewson, supported by a cast of hundreds in 38 ambulances crammed with medicines and supplies from donors across the country.
This summer again, the massive airlift of about 1,000 Chernobyl children to Ireland will get underway and again, many Irish families will be opening their hearts and homes to them. And come the autumn, 15 of them will be holed up with the Barrettstown Gang - Paul Newman's foundation for seriously ill children - in Co Kildare. The purpose is to give the children a chance to look at life differently, to send them out with new self esteem and a sense of control over their lives. If there is any positive news out of Belarus, it is this outpouring of generosity from humanitarian aid organisations across the world.
Non governmental organisations in Germany, for example, have been particularly generous with aid of every kind. Some put this down to guilt about the war, others talk, simply about building bridges of peace: "Germans tortured our children, and threw them into fires", said one Belarussian speaker, at a recent Minsk conference, "but today there is no hatred, we have positive news out of Belarus, it is learned now that Germans can become our friends". German conscientious objectors to the mandatory 18 month military service, can opt to do voluntary work on social projects instead. Boris Harbaum, a 20 year old CO, is currently working in a children's cancer hospital in Minsk: "My organisation sends people to countries that have been occupied by fascist Germany", he "said, "we ask them to forgive us".
MEANWHILE, says Adi Roche, there are 250 orphanages in Belarus with an average of 400 children in each. The Chernobyl Children's Project currently has three major projects in sight: the first two are to "give two of these orphanages the dignity of bathroom, toilet and washing facilities".
The third is to build environmentally friendly greenhouses, jointly, designed by Irish architects, Roger Foxhall and Associates in Co Kerry, and architects in Gomel, to provide these orphanages with year round uncontaminated food. Teagasc is helping with the "clean" soil and they will cost around $80,000 each.
