ADOPTIONS BETWEEN Belarus and Ireland could start again after a seven-year suspension, the chief executive of Chernobyl Children International (CCI) has said.
Adi Roche, at an event in Dublin yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, said she had received positive signals from the Belarusian authorities this month.
The “ball is now in the Irish Government’s court” regarding renegotiation of an agreement, she said.
She would be raising the issue with Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore at a meeting on Tuesday, she added.
Ms Roche said there were “dozens” of families here “with their adoption papers ready in their hands to adopt children from Belarus”.
“It remains a stalemate to this day, but there is hope. I had a meeting with the deputy foreign minister at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Minsk about three weeks ago and I asked would Belarus be open to rebuilding an adoption agreement with Ireland and he said, ‘Yes’, they would.
“So the ball is very much back in the Irish Government’s court.”
The Adoption Board yesterday confirmed there had been no adoptions of Belarusian children into Ireland “for quite a number of years” and that none was likely in the foreseeable future.
Yesterday’s event at Farmleigh in Dublin saw 25 of the charity’s “top volunteers” commended, among them builders, doctors, drivers, mothers and fathers, aged from 17 to 80 years.
On April 26th, 1986, the world’s worst nuclear disaster took place with the reactor explosion at Chernobyl, releasing many tens of thousand of kilogrammes of radioactive material into the environment. An area of 150,000 square miles was contaminated and the effects have had a disastrous impact on seven million people.
Congenital birth defects rose by 250 per cent and continue to occur.
The volunteers honoured yesterday had been central to the charity’s contribution of more than €90 million in direct aid to the country over the past 25 years, Ms Roche pointed out.
One of the first children to be adopted here from Belarus after the disaster was Raisa Carolan (18), who became part of a family from Trim, Co Meath. Raisa was born with significant physical disability which left her unable to eat or speak properly. She first came to Ireland for rest and medical help and was adopted in 2002.
She said at yesterday’s event she had been saved from a life without a family, without an education and possibly without any semblance of independence. “I have a future. I am hoping an adoption agreement with Belarus will be reinstated so other children from Belarus can have a normal life.”
Anna Gabriel (18), from Bandon, Co Cork, who was adopted in 1996, told how she had hearing loss and two deformed legs when she arrived. She said the intention had been to place her in an adult mental asylum when she was instead adopted at the age of four.
“To be honest I don’t know what my life would have been, and I don’t really want to find out.”
She is studying for her Leaving Certificate and hopes to study business information systems at Cork Institute of Technology.
Among the volunteers recognised was plastic surgeon Michael Earley, who has performed reconstructive surgery on dozens of children from the region.
“It is fantastic to have worked with these children,” he said. “They have changed our lives as well. It makes you appreciate what you have, makes you glad to have the skills and to be able to use them.”
* To donate to CCI contact 0818 252525
