BEZKHLIBNYK KALYNA

Date and Place of Birth: September 17, 1947,  Innsbruck, Austria

Date of Interview: July 5, 2023

Place of Interview: Toronto, Ontario

Interviewer: Andriy Shwec

Length of Interview: 23 min

(Excerpt):

Interviewer: If you could describe some of your trips to Ukraine and your work with Children of Chernobyl.

KB: I’ve been to Ukraine at least six times, seven if I consider a social trip, I took there to visit family. Six times it was with groups I was involved with. Six times I went with groups I was involved with. First, I went with Help Us Help the Children and I was on the medical committee. We toured most of Ukraine in the five trips I was on. I’ve been East, I’ve been West, I’ve been down to Crimea, I’ve been to Kharkiv, I’ve been to Kremenchuk. I’ve seen most of the areas which are now occupied or trying to be occupied by Russia. So, in those routes usually we went to orphanages, and we were trying to bring humanitarian aid to the children there. Afterwards my routes were usually medical routes in hospitals where we also provided medical supplies to the hospitals in Ukraine and it was amazing to see how outdated a lot of their equipment was, but somehow, they managed. We were able to supply ambulances to them and of course a lot of needed surgical equipment. I also went to a pharmaceutical conference in Ukraine which was interesting, and I was able to tour some of the hospital facilities. Working in psychiatry most of my life, it was eye-opening or amazing to see how they treated their patients very differently than we did in North America. It was like an old school prison-like situation. It was an eye-opener during my time, working with Children of Chernobyl and Help Us Help the Children.

CROSS REFERENCES:

Children of Chernobyl

Help Us Help the Children

Homin Ukrainy 

Plast