Dozens of Children’s Lives Saved Through Cardiac Mission in Kharkiv
“The day we cannot shed a tear for another human being or feel an emotion about the suffering or the agony of another human being, no matter what part of the world they are in, is the day I think we switch the light off on the planet because we have lost who we are as a species and we have lost our sense of responsibility of being part of the human family.” – Adi Roche
Yesterday the world commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of the horrific disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. We shared the inspiring work of World of Children Honoree Adi Roche, who continues to work on behalf of the children still affected by the radiation.
More than 6,000 children are still born with fatal heart defects every single year in the Ukraine and Adi’s organization, Chernobyl Children International, continues to provide free, early surgical interventions that significantly increase these children’s chances for living long, healthy lives.
CCI Cardiac Missions that send groups of trained medical volunteers, including cardiac nurses, technicians, and surgeons, to the Ukraine to perform life-saving heart surgeries. These volunteers work alongside local medical staff and provide training to build up the area’s local capacity to treat these medical issues.
World of Children was proud to honor Adi’s work with a 2015 Alumni Award for her work. Thanks to our wonderful donors worldwide, as part of Adi’s award, we were able to provide the funds needed to sponsor a Cardiac Mission to Kharkiv in Eastern Ukraine in early 2016.
The sponsorship included the cost of volunteers traveling to Kharkiv for the two week mission and all necessary medical supplies – some shipped from Ireland and some sourced locally in Ukraine.
We recently received news of the cardiac mission’s success, along with pictures of the beautiful children whose lives were saved. We’re grateful to share these with you as a thank you for helping us reach these children, born into the most unfortunate of circumstances and thirty years later, still paying the price for a man-made disaster.
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Learn more about Adi Roche and Chernobyl Children International >>