For the first time two Belarussian children badly affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster have been officially adopted by Irish families.
The two families and the children flew into Dublin airport from the Belarussian capital, Minsk, yesterday evening together with the head of the Chernobyl Children's Project, Ms Adi Roche.
Mrs Helen and Mr Chris Barrett of Baldoyle, Co Dublin have adopted three-yearold Alexei; Mrs Barrett is Ms Roche's sister.
They first took him into their care when he was six months old and had a massive tumour over his left eye. Although Belarussian doctors had given him only six weeks to live if he remained in the abandoned babies home in Minsk, surgery over the past two and a half years in Temple Street children's hospital in Dublin has given him new hope. He will need continuing treatment but is now attending a play school. Mrs Helen and Mr Robert Gabriel from Bandon, Co Cork, who already have three daughters, have adopted six-year-old Anna. Also abandoned at birth, she uses a wheelchair but is mobile most of the time on her stunted legs. When she reaches the age of nine, she will have to decide, with her new parents, whether to have her legs amputated or else remain wheelchair-bound for the rest of her life.
Last week the two families travelled to Minsk where the children had to undergo extensive assessment and medical analysis. After several days of bureaucratic delays while they changed from Belarussian to Irish citizenship, they received their Irish passports and were able to fly out from Minsk yesterday morning.
Ms Roche and Ms Ali Hewson - wife of U2 lead singer Bono - first brought Alexei and Anna to Ireland two and a half years ago, and are now their godparents. If they had been left in Belarussia they would have been put in mental institutions once they had reached the age of four.