Huron Expositor, 2009-06-24, Page 7News
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!;.X14s banned after 16 -year-old girl defects.Jn California
awill miss ; welcoming 14 -year-old Belardslan friend into their home for a fourth year
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For the past three summers, Larry
and Laurie Dolmage of Harpurhey
have welcomed into their home a
young girl from Belarus who has be-
come like a member of their family.
The girl, 14 -year-old -Olga Filins-
kaya, grew up in an aroma of Belarus
still contaminated bythe Chernobyl
nuclear disaster of 1986 and her
six-week visit to Ontario during the
summers has given her some much-
needed respite that helps improve
her immune system by breathing
clean air and eating healthy foods.
But this year, the Belarusian gov-
ernment is not allowing Olga .to vis-
it.
In " fact, none of the 10 children
from Belarus scheduled to stay with
host families of the Huron County
for Children of Chernobyl program
will be coming this summer.
It's because Belarusian President
Alexander Lukashenko has ordered
a ban on foreign trips for all children
in the. international program after
a 16 -year-old girl refused to return
home from a visit with her host fam-
ily in California.
Mrs. Dolmage says tier family,
which includes teena gg ed\ daughters
Lindsay and Sarah, hav tried to
contact Olga . after learn g about
the ban but have had som trouble
:receiving any word. back fro . her.
"We were very disappointed," says
Mrs. Dolmage, who expected for have
Olga arrive at the end of July. f "You
always have that little bit of pe
that maybe their government . • 11
see how this affects the kids and haw,
positive it is. for them, but they didn't
see it like that."
They planned on taking Olga out
for days at the beach and showing
her around other areas of Huron
County during her visit this sum-
mer.
Last year, The Expositor spoke
.with Olga durin her stay. in Har-
purhey, who said in, near -perfect
English that she enjoyed biking and
just hanging out with the family and
doing fun things like having water
fights with Lindsay and Sarah;
Mrs. Dolmage says Olga was a lit-
tle shy when she first came to stay
with the family three years ago, but
they bonded quickly and her daugh-
ters quickly made "a friend for life."
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The Dolmage family, Larry, Sarah, Laurie and Undsay, pose
with .Olga Fllinskaya, who has visited them for the past three
years.
Huron County ' for Children of
Chernobyl chairperson Lynn Dawe,
of Seaforth, says the Belarusian gov-
ernment is requiring all host coun-
tries to sign an agreement guaran-
teeing that the children will return
to Belarus after their six-week stay
abroad.
In May, Belarus came to an agree-
ment with the UK, which now allows
Children of Chernobyl to visit again,
but Dawe says the treaty has gone
back and forth between Canada and
Belarus without a final agreement
being reached.
Dawe says part of the reason the
treaty hasn't been signed by Foreign
Affairs Canada involves provincial
issues that do not fall under the ju-
risdiction of the federal government.
"Foreign Affairs will re -word it and
send it back to Belarus, they'll look
at it, re -word it again and send it
back. It's gone back and forth several
dimes," Dawe says.
Dawe says she
first learned the
children would
not be allowed
to visit Cana-
da about three
weeks ago.
She has since
been communi-
cating with Chil-
dren of Cher-
nobyl groups in
Chatham -Kent
and Ottawa Val-
ley, in order to
pressure Min-
ister of Foreign
Affairs Law-
rence Cannon to
make the issue a
priority.
"For a while
they were really
pushing to get
it done so the kids could still come
this summer, but because they're
not, I'm just worried that they'll put
it on the back burner and then all of
a sudden next January, we're going
to, be scrambling again and saying,
'OK, why isn't this done yet?'" Dawe
says.
She has sent several emails to Hu-
ron -Bruce MP Ben Lobb's office and
-has been told that as soon as Foreign
Affairs Canada reaches an agree-
ment with Belarus, she will be noti-
fied.
"Apparently Foreign Affairs has
said, these kind of things take
months or sometimes years," Dawe
says.
It's the first time in 12 years that
Huron County for Children of Cher-
nobyl will not be hosting kids.
Dawe says she's heard that part of
the agreement may stipulate that no
child over the age of 13 can travel out
of Belarus through
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the program. . .
The traditional age range of Chil-
dren of Chernobyl has been nine to
16.
Dawe says she's also heard that
Belarus may be -requiring that no
child stay in the same host country
for more than three years.
She suspects this is because t1ie
Belarusian government is fearful
that another child may become too
attached to Ms or her host family
and refuse to return home to Belarus
after a summer visit.
"Unfortunately, if they stick to
their guns on that, we'll have several
of the children that originally we did
plan to invite this year that won't be
able to come back," she says.
This would mean that Olga would
have stayed with the Dolmage fam-
ily for the maximum of three years.
"President Lukashenko is not
a real fan of children travelling,"
Dawe says. "He would much rather
see humanitarian aid come into his
country. But, as we've said before,
the children need to leave the coun-
try. They need to get out of the ra-
diation. We can't give that to them,
other than having themcome here."
Twenty-three years ago, when a
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant re-
actor exploded releasing dangerous
amounts of radiation into the air, the
wind on that day carried it toward
Belarus, devastating the area and
contaminating the region's air, soil
and water.,
The goal of Huron County for Chil-
dren of Chernobyl is to get children
taking vitamins, eating healthy
fruits and vegetables and spending
lots of time in the fresh air and sun-
shine.
Dawe has said that spending six
weeks in Huron County can add
years to their lives.
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