Cubans helping children affected by Chernobyl for 20 years

Cuban doctors started treating patients from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster twenty years ago, through a charity program for Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans and Armenians affected by the 1986 tragedy.The first group of children from contaminated areas came to Cuba in March 1990, where they were met by Fidel Castro at the Havana Airport.Some beneficiaries of the program have visited Cuba for several consecutive years. The Tarara resort town near Havana has everything necessary for exposure patients. Surgeons from the local health center perform sophisticated heart operations and carry out kidney and bone marrow transplants.The world’s largest man-made nuclear accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear plant early on the morning of April 26, 1986. Radiation from the disaster would eventually contaminate 160,000 square kilometers of northern Ukraine and western Russia and the entire nation of Belarus.