About 25,000 children who suffered from medical conditions in the aftermath of Chernobyl's nuclear explosion have been sent to Cuba to receive treatment up to this date, documented an exhibition presented Tuesday in Lima, Peru.
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This medical support “demonstrated Cuba's solidarity with the victims, in an economically difficult moment for the country,” said Cuban journalist Maribel Acosta, referring to the so-called “Special Period” that started after the collapse of the former USSR—Cuba's main support during the U.S. economic blockade.
Acosta helped Peruvian documentary maker Sonia Cunliffe to investigate the solidarity gesture and present the audio-visual material at the occasion of the 30-year-old anniversary of the worst nuclear disaster in history.
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Between 1990 and 2011, they found about 25,000 children from Russia, Belorussia and Ukraine were sent to a hospital built in this purpose in the coastal town of Tarara, about 24 kilometers away from Havana. Some of them were not even born when the nuclear explosion occurred. About 800 are still being treated on the island.
Photographs show children playing on the beach or receiving treatments for months—sometimes for years, others show the kids in the classroom, as they were also sent to school while in Cuba.