After almost three years of difficult negotiations, five Irish couples learned yesterday that they can adopt children from Chernobyl who came to Ireland in 1995 for life-saving medical treatment.
The President of Belarus, Mr Alyaksandr Lukashenka, signed an agreement yesterday with the Government which sanctioned the adoptions. It is the first time that children from Chernobyl will be adopted by Irish families.
The five children, now aged two to nine, were found in orphanages and homes for abandoned children and were flown to Ireland for emergency medical treatment. Some of the children have birth defects and medical problems which will require surgery for several more years.
Since their arrival, they have been living with families who will now be able to legally adopt them within the next few months.
"A small miracle has happened," Ms Adi Roche, executive director of the Chernobyl Children's Project, a charity which helps children from the contaminated region, said. "The government [in Belarus] has changed its mind several times and we have had so many false starts. We are delighted."
The agreement only covered the adoption of the five children living in Ireland and did not pave the way for adoptions of other children from Belarus, Ms Roche said. She did not know whether the Government would allow other children from Chernobyl to be adopted in the future.
Mrs Helen Barrett said she and her husband, Chris, were thrilled when they learned they would be able to adopt Alexei Chmarlovski. Alexei, who will be three this month, had a large tumour removed from his eye socket at Temple Street Hospital when he was six months old. Almost 2 1/2
???later, Mrs Barrett said her son had adjusted well to life in Ireland and was happy in their Baldoyle home.
"He has a strong Dublin accent and he is a true northsider," she said yesterday. The Chernobyl Children's Project was set up in 1991 up to help children affected by the 1986 nuclear disaster. It has sent £9.5 million of medical and humanitarian aid to Belarus, Ukraine and western Russia.
It is planned to bring 1,200 children here over the next few weeks. In eight years, more than 4,000 children have been brought from Belarus for a holiday.