Description

Elena Balushko was only two years old on April 26, 1986, so she doesn’t remember the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But on that day, one of the four nuclear reactors at Chernobyl in Ukraine exploded, sending thousands of tons of radioactive powder into the atmosphere. The Chernobyl accident was the worst nuclear disaster in history.

When Elena was nine years old, a tumor started to grow behind her eye. Elena’s mother took her to many doctors in Kiev, but they all said the same thing – Elena needed an operation right away, but there was no room in the Kiev hospitals. That was when Elena and her mother heard about Tarara, Cuba.

This is the story of the more than 13,000 children of Chernobyl who have been treated in Cuba, as told through the eyes of Elena and her friends.

“My mama says that here in Tarara more than my tumor has been healed,” said Elena. “She said that here in Tarara my spirit has been healed, too.”

Pictures

Ukrainian children in Cuba with a bouquet of fresh fragrant flowers.