From Chernobyl to Chocolate: Escape from the Silent Danger

March 27, 2012 - PRLog -- Simon Swerdlow, 13, was about to board a plane for the first time in his life.  “I was excited,” he said, “but also nervous because this would be my first time traveling alone.  And I had no return ticket.  That was scary.”

The year was 1990, and 250 children were boarding the first international evacuation flight taking children out of the radioactive zones around Chernobyl, four years after the nuclear disaster occurred.

But when the children and their parents arrived at Minsk Airport, they found only an airstrip and an unfinished construction site.  “We were stranded there for three days,” said Simon.  “My parents had no luggage, we had no blankets.  People were sleeping on concrete.  The bathrooms were unfinished.  The organizers brought us food from the city and they did their best, but it was random stuff.  A banana, an egg, some juice.”

As Simon was about to board an old Romanian airliner, he turned and looked back at the airport.  His parents had climbed the bulwarks of the unfinished airport building to reach the top deck and were gazing down at him from behind glass panes.  They lifted their hands in farewell.

Twenty-five years later, Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl is still bringing children out of the affected zones to receive medical care not available in the former Soviet Union.  
On April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear power plant suffered a series of explosions triggered by uncontrolled power surges, and the resulting fires sent a plume of highly radioactive smoke and fallout over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe, with an estimated 60% of the fallout landing in the Belarus region.

“We kids didn’t even know how bad it was.  But our parents knew.  Because almost every doctor and scientist in our town left with his family.  They took no clothes or luggage.  They said goodbye to no one.  They took their wallets and their families and they disappeared.”

Since the first evacuation in 1990, Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl has sponsored over 95 evacuation flights, rescued over 2,700 children and reunited many of them with their families.  Simon Swerdlow is now age 34 and CEO of Tasty Image, an international chocolate franchise based in New York and Florida.  He is happily married with a six-year-old daughter and reunited with his family, who now live in the United States.  Swerdlow is multi-lingual, speaking Russian, Spanish, Hebrew and English and he heads up an international team of creative artists, marketers and chocolatiers.

“I owe my life to Chabad,” he says.  “It gave me a second birth, a new life.”

Swerdlow actively supports the ongoing efforts of Children of Chernobyl, who are still evacuating children twenty-five years later.  “It is more critical than ever now, because people and food systems have such a buildup of contamination and medical care in many regions is inadequate, particularly for many cancers.”

Swerdlow’s company Tasty Image has also begun a monthly program to give back to various charitable organizations, including children with special medical needs and community projects.  

Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl Facebook page welcomes volunteers, high-end auction items, and funds.   Meeting a child’s needs for the first year costs $18,000 per child, including flight, education, board and medical needs.  

Contact Esti Herman, executive director of Chabad’s Children of Chernobyl at eherman@ccoc.net for more information on how to assist the organization.

The full interview with Simon Swerdlow is available on the Tasty Image blog at http://tastyimage.typepad.com/tasty-image/2012/02/from-ch...

For interviews and more information about Simon Swerdlow write to simon@tastyimage.com.

# # #

Tasty Image is an unique chocolate franchise. We reproduce any custom image, picture or text on chocolate and cookies. The resolution is great and it is all 100% edible!