Application 6 Lions Children of Chernobyl


Some months after the third trip to Novozybkov in June 2000 Monica Antonsson became a member of LC Vallentuna. Some months later 2001 Chernobyls Children / Novozybkov became a project without a specified goal within the club. A year later 2002 it was lifted to be a concern for District 101-U.

To define a project

In October 2002 Monica Antonsson went to Novozybkov again on the districts commission. This time together with IRD Bruno Pettersson (LC Norrköping) and from LC Vallentuna Anders Rönnholm (president) and Roger Larsson (responsible for long-distance transports). The aim of the trip was to finally define and formulate a project for Lions Club Sweden.

They met dr Lydia Vladimirovna Bavkunova at the Maternity hospital and got fascinated by her sad eyes and heroic work. With only 13 doctors instead of 33 at the hospital she very often has to work double time, day and night, to assist the delivering women. Note that she is well known in Russia as a very clever surgeon. Besides, she has to take responsibility for the staff, the hospitals buildings, the equipment (that she does not have), vehicles and everything else.





Dr Lydia Vladimirovna Bavkunova is - in our eyes - the Angel of Novozybkov. 
That is why we call her hospital The house of the Angel. 


The medical situation in Novozybkov after 1986 is very difficult. Heart diseases and high blood pressure is common among the pregnant women who lives in radioactive polluted areas and eat radioactive food. Urine (bladder) illnesses are more often seen than before and almost all pregnant women gets serious anaemia and/or problems with the thyroid gland. Dr Lydia says, that all pregnant women have at least three diseases that have to be treated during their pregnancies. 

About 50 per cent of all pregnancies are at risk for spontaneous abortion. An increasing number of the women need surgery to be able to give birth at all. About 15 per cent deliver their babies after Caesarean section. Most women have problems with keeping the babies inside their bodies long enough. Many children are born premature, which can lead to their death. 


Serious bleedings, that can lead to the death of the mother, is three doubled after 1986. The risk to die from such bleedings during or after the delivery is seven (7) times higher in radioactive polluted places like Novozybkov than in the rest of Russia. 

 The hospital has to every six months report in writing what has happened and why. Unfortunately the doctors in charge are not aloud to tell the truth. If they do, they will lose their jobs. Therefore there is no trustable Russian statistics of Chernobyl related medical consequences to get. See Michel Fernexs article: The Chernobyl Catastrophe and Health Care. Michel Fernex is professor emeritus at the Medical Faculty, Basel University, Switzerland. See page 180.

Monica Antonsson found this report and went to see professor Michel Fernex and his wife Solange Fernex, a former EU-parlamentarian for the Green party, in Biedertal, France, for an interview. In their house she met Dr Galina Bandazhevskaya from Minsk, the filmmaker, Wladimir Tchertkoff (who made several TV-films in Chernobyl), Professor Vasily Nesterenko and his wife from Minsk, Belarus. Their purpose in France were that they had been to the EU-parliament as witnesses. All of them – except Wladimir Tchertkoff – are mentioned in Michel Fernex´s report.



Professor Michel Fernex


Solange and Michel Fernex, Galina Bandazhevskaya, Wladimir Chertkoff, Vasily Nesterenko with wife.


Michel and Solange Fernex