A Thousand Bubbles Over Ukraine...

Today I watched a documentary called Chernobyl Heart. It was about a chemical spill that happened in April of 1986 in Ukraine, at the Chernobyl Chemical Plant. This happened less than a year after I was born (in Hungary). It has left the area the most radioactive place on earth. 9 million people were affected, and it's affects are still present today. The number of children born with deformities has increased by 250% since the Chernobyl Chemical Spill. Orphanages and mental asylums are filled with children abandoned because of their deformities. There is no hope for these children. They spend their entire lives living in cribs, and if they survive to be 17, they are moved to an adult mental asylum which also serves as a prison for dangerous criminals, and is a very dangerous place for these children to go. This documentary breaks my heart not just as a teacher, but as a human being. These children have no future, no hope, and are abandoned and locked away from the rest of the world like a disease. One part of the documentary shows a young boy begging for a TV, a radio, anything to pass the time of being confined to a room all day, every day. These children are very difficult to watch, because they were changed forever by something that was out of their control. Areas as far as 150 miles from the most dangerous zones, which are still blocked today, only report 15%-20% of babies are born healthy each year. Watching this documentary, my mother told me that she remembers when the chemical spill happened and the radio was telling everyone to keep their children inside. Most children my age born in the affected areas, are affected by thyroid cancer today. They show the sheer number of Abandoned Babies Homes located in the region in and around Ukraine. Many regions are still contaminated today, and the number of healthy babies being born is only decreasing. The government has deemed some of the contaminated zones as being clean, though they are not, so they would not be obligated to give money to those affected by the Chernobyl Chemical spill. Many people living in the contaminated areas have no money or opportunity to move. I am torn, because I know that the government hasn't the money to forever pay for the effects of this tragedy, and people have no way of moving or changing their children's fate no matter how much they want to. It's a very real moment when a mother and father are crying because they know what will become of their children, but they cannot stop it, and they cannot change it. They just can't. This tragic place on earth, and the locked away children who are forgotten and counted as one of the lost and hopeless, is proof that time does not heal all wounds. There is an open wound on our planet, and it's still bleeding 20 years later. I don't understand, I just don't understand so many things. Like how can there be money in times of war, because for war the money always appears from somewhere, yet when there are people suffering all over the world, there just IS NO money? The children affected by the Chernobyl Chemical spill are deemed as having 'Chernobyl Heart', it is a common thread for all the children and people affected. The radiation levels are hundreds of times higher in the affected areas than what is deemed to be a dangerous level. This documentary has truly touched me and it makes me want to travel to see these children abandoned by the society that has brought this tragedy upon them. My dream has always been to be a teacher of young children, to absorb their laughter, and give them the tools to make the world a better place. This documentary really made me reconsider that. Maybe now is the time to go and give to children who are not being given to. If love is all they need, we have it. We have love. Why should one not be compelled to give love where it is needed the most? They are not a disease, people are not diseases, they need love like everyone needs love to be alive. No-one should be deprived of love because they have been flawed. There is not much doctors can due to help these children, or to save their lives. Only about 300 children will have the necessary heart operation they need to survive, each year. The rest will die waiting. One of the things that stuck out in my mind about this documentary, is that they help children with Chernobyl Hearts by having them blow bubbles...