Talk to local “babushkas”

Ivan Ivanovych Semeniuk

Ivan Ivanovych Semeniuk lives in village Paryshiv. After the accident he was evacuated to Borodianka region. People there were scared of people from Chernobyl and treated them really bad. When a sarcofagues and decontamination works were finished, he came back to his village with his wife Maria and had been working in Chernobyl as a guard. Now he is retired and Maria passed away 2 years ago.

Hanna Zavorotnia

Hanna Zavorotnia lives in village Kupovate. She was evacuated to Kopyliv and came back illegally to her house short after the evacuation. She was married and had a child. Her child passed away at the age of 2 and her husband passed away a long time ago.

Sania Zavorotnia

Sania Zavorotnia lives in Kupovate with her sister Hanna. She is disabled since her childhood and Hanna is looking after her.

Baba Maria

Baba Maria lives in Kupovate. She is a cousin of Hanna and Sonia. She has children and grandchildren who live in Kyiv and come to visit her often. Her husband passed away.

Baba Julia

Baba Julia lives in village Kupovate and looks after her son. They were evacuated to Kopyliv and come back to their village short after the evacuation because they didn’t have a good place to live and people were not nice with them.

Yevgen Fedorovich

Yevgen Fedorovich lives in Chernobyl town with his wife. He used to be a labor teacher in Chernobyl school. He was evacuated to Kyiv and he still owns an apartment there. But he doesn’t like living in a city and that’s why came back few years after the evacuation. He has children and grandchildren.

All resettlers are in their 70s. They are retired and have small farms where they grow everything they need. The main reason why they came back was a really strong desire to die where they were born. All of them are very strong and optimistic people. They enjoy their life and say that they their motherland gives them power to live. I highly recommend you to watch a film called “Babushkas from Chernobyl”. These are all facts I know about them. If you have any questions you may ask them personally when visit them. And please note, that they are OLD People and we are quests who come to visit them, so everything on this visit is based on their weal and they won’t repeat something because you want to take picture of it. We are not coming with empty hands as well. We bring them some money or products. When your guide says: “It’s time to go” group leaves.