Helping a Child of Chernobyl

The Pearson family of Owensville, Mo., lives thousands of miles from the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster, but every year it reaches out to enrich—and perhaps save—the life of one of its victims.

Since 1996, the Pearsons have opened their arms and home to Alyona Burak, a slender, blue-eyed Belarusian girl whose visits they eagerly await each summer.

“We’ve learned that love has no limitations,” says Jerry Pearson, pastor of St. Peter’s United Church of Christ in Owensville. “It spreads further than the nucleus of family.”

The Pearsons’ love can be measured by the clock. Every minute Alyona spends in the clean Midwest air is a minute her body gets a break from the constant radiation she’s exposed to in her homeland. Alyona lives 60 miles from Chernobyl, where a 1986 nuclear power plant explosion sent clouds of radioactive dust into Belarus. Contaminated soil and air still pose risks of thyroid cancer and leukemia to the children who live there.

“We want to keep healthy children healthy,” Pearson says. “It would be best if she was completely removed from the radiation, but doctors say six weeks allows her immune system time to rebuild. We have her eight weeks. Every time Alyona gets a clean bill of health, that’s the best track record we could have.”

Under the Pearsons’ patient care, Alyona has blossomed. Once so terrified by a culture and language she didn’t understand, she clung only to Jerry’s wife, Tamra. “My goal was to make her feel at home,” Tamra says. “I cared and nurtured her as if she were my own.”

Now, the 13-year-old slips easily into the Pearson’s activities. Like teenage sisters, Vanessa Pearson and Alyona hang out at the pool, do household chores, fight over the television remote, and watch Gone with the Wind together. Pearson schedules vacations to Orlando, Fla., and Branson, Mo., during her June-August stay. Tamra, who bought Alyona her first properly sized shoes, takes her shopping. The Pearsons have taught her to play softball and introduced her to her favorite food, Chinese stir fry.

“It’s a calling,” explains Pearson. “God has placed our family in this situation. It fits who we are and grows out of what’s inside us.”

The Pearsons learned about the Children of Chernobyl Fund when they lived in Ohio. Unable to forget the Belarusians they heard about, the Pearsons formed a Missouri branch of the nonprofit organization when they transferred to Owensville (pop. 2,300). Since 1996, they’ve spread the word in party conversation, press releases, and by inviting Ohio sponsors to speak to church groups. The result: Seven other Missouri towns now have host families.

“My mom heard a presentation and gave a summary about it in church,” says Tina Medlock of Rosebud, Mo. “We have five kids, but my husband just said, ‘Honey, I think we can do this.’”

Now the Medlocks sponsor their own Belarusian child and rely on the Pearsons’ experience. “Pastor Jerry knows so much. He’s our lifeline. I’ve called him at 10:30 at night” for advice, Metlock says.

Pearson does much of the legwork for the Missouri host families. He found a Russian-speaking dentist in St. Louis, physicians in nearby Belle, and an Owensville optometrist who all provide free checkups for the children.

“The program is very much a success,” says Joe Knable, president of the Children of Chernobyl Fund, which sponsors 154 Belarusian children nationwide.

The Pearsons dread Alyona’s departure. They fill her suitcase with soup mixes, vitamins, aspirin, and Band-Aids. For 10 months, their love again spans continents, as they send warm winter clothing to her in Belarus, raise airfare for other Belarusian children, and seek new host families.

But having enough money to charter a larger plane tops the wish list. “That’s the kind of faith I have,” Pearson says. “If the jet was provided, we will get the families.”

Vicki Cox is a freelance writer and book author based in Lebanon, Mo.

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