01/03/2006 - Annya was
born in 11000 to Valentina and Vachlav Pesenko
from Zakopytye, a village highly contaminated
by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown of 1986.
A cancerous brain tumour at the age of four
marked the end of Annya's childhood and
the beginning of a life of pain and illness.
Annya, now 15 and bed-ridden, has spent
her life in and out of hospital, between
tumours and life support. Every 15 minutes
of every night, she must be turned in order
to prevent further pain and bedsores.
Twenty years after the Chernobyl disaster,
Annya, and her parents battle everyday with
the cruel and personal legacy of Chernobyl.
Their home village of Zakopytye, irradiated
and uninhabitable, was razed and buried
years ago. Gomel, the region where they
live now, is economically and socially depressed,
and work is hard to find.
Annya's is just one story. In the Ukraine,
Russia, Belarus and beyond, there are 100,000's
of people who lost a chance of a normal
life to nuclear disaster on a quiet spring
night in 1986. Thousands of stories. Thousands
of certificates. Thousands of lives forever
and irreparably scarred.
Nuclear technology is inherently dangerous.
Today, thankfully, it is also unnecessary.
Our energy needs can be met with safe and
efficient renewable energy technologies.
So, why are so many politicians peddling
nuclear power at the very time we need it
least, when we have safe and sustainable
sources available to power the world?
And why does the UN, through its International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continue to
promote the nuclear technology that creates
the very materials used to make the nuclear
weapons it is mandated to stop? Is it the
role of a UN agency, funded by your taxes,
to advance the profits of the nuclear industry?
Do we not have the right to expect the IAEA
to focus only on the values and principles
of the UN - peace, security, and human rights
- and not on private industry's profits?
In some ways, sadly, Annya is just a number.
She is one of hundreds of thousands of victims
living the devastating aftermath of Chernobyl.
For Annya and for the thousands of children
like her, you need to speak out and say
NO more nuclear, NO more Chernobyls. If
you don't, who will?
