Nonprofit brings friends from far away
County residents form bonds with kids from Eastern Europe
By Soumitro Sen, soumitros@theunion.com
» More from Soumitro Sen
12:01 a.m. PT Jun 19, 2007
If you see 15-year-old Zach Dahlgren and 16-year-old
Zhenya Novik together, you'd never guess they aren't brothers.
They have grown up together, in a way.
Zhenya comes from Belarus, in eastern Europe,
and has visited Zach at his Grass Valley home for the past eight
years.
He comes to the U.S. with help from the Nevada County
Chernobyl Children's Project - a local nonprofit organization
that arranges recuperative visits for children affected by a 1986
accident at a nuclear plant in Chernobyl, a Ukrainian town close
to Belarus.
According to Jennifer Dahlgren, Zach's mother, this year, 25
children - aged 8 through 17 - have come from Belarus.
The project hosted a welcome dinner Monday evening for the young guests and their host families at the community hall adjacent to St. Patrick's
"It's nice to be back," Zhenya said in a soft-spoken manner. "It's good to see my friends and family."
This year, Zhenya plans to learn to drive with Zach, Jennifer Dahlgren said. The family also plans to fish, hike and bike.
Over the years, Zach and Zhenya also have developed common interests such as playing soccer, watching baseball games in Sacramento and Oakland, listening to music and reading.
"It's just like having a brother," said Zach, an only child, about his European friend who also has no siblings. "We are into the same kind of stuff."
Jennifer Dahlgren decided to host a child from the Chernobyl Children's Project only after she made up her mind to adopt a child, she said.
Jennifer Dahlgren and her husband, Eric Dahlgren, have paid the airfare and health insurance for Zhenya for the past several years. The Chernobyl Children's Project pays those costs only the first time, Jennifer Dahlgren said.
"It's fun to have him here," Zach's mother said. "The house is always very quiet when he leaves."
ooo
It was smiles and squeals of delight as 27 extremely thin children from Belarus stepped off the plane at San Francisco International. The children still live with the effects of the worst nuclear accident in history.
They'll spend six weeks in California each year as part of program sponsored by the humanitarian group Nevada County Children of Chernobyl that offers recuperative holidays to victims of the 1986 reactor accident.
“Their parents tell us that they go home and have less colds and flues, and they go home to face the winter,” said Laura Christofferson of Grass Valley. For the past six years, she has hosted Leahenin Moisecheck, now 16 years old.
The trips are an opportunity to receive health care not available at home, in a clean environment and nourished by healthy food. The children will visit dentists, some of them receiving much needed surgery not available at home because of a lack of anesthesia.
The children speak very little English, but Christofferson said that has not been a barrier to communicating
KCBS News Radio 740 reports on NCCCP arrival at SFO
page update - June 19, 2007 11:15 am PDT
Video and Photography provided by
Jonathan Beitz
News Story by
Margie Shafer KCBS News Radio 740
Zhenya Novik, left, a student from Belarus in eastern Europe, chats with his host mother Jennifer Dahlgren while his host brother Zach Dahlgren watches television at the Dahlgrens' home in Grass Valley.
The Union photo/Soumitro Sen
More Photos & Reprints »
