Igor's coming ‘home’ to his Castlebar family
WITH his wonderful personality and charms captivating all who meet him, 17-year-old Igor Shadshov is making a welcome return to Mayo this summer.
Next Wednesday (June 27), Igor will leave Vesnova Children’s Institution for one month and join his loving Cox family in Castlebar.
Igor is part of a group of 145 children and young adults, all of them with serious illnesses and disabilities, who are being brought to Ireland by Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International (CCI).
They will arrive at Shannon Airport next Wednesday and will meet their eagerly awaiting host families who come from 10 counties across the country.
A group of over 20 children and young adults will follow Igor to Castlebar in July, having already spent two weeks with a group of Dublin volunteers.
Igor is just one of thousands of children who were abandoned to bleak institutions as babies. When CCI first found Igor, the conditions in which he lived where inhumane. His communications skills were almost non-existent and he was prone to biting, scratching and spitting. Igor has lived with huge physical impairment all his life.
Through CCI’s intervention, Igor was at last able to receive the love, care and attention he so desperately needed and deserved. A wheelchair specially adapted to his needs has given him mobility and freedom.
Igor comes to Ireland twice a year as part of CCI’s Rest and Recuperation Programme into a family that love and adore him.
Speaking of Igor’s development, ‘Mama Marie’ said: “For us, it is important that Igor has access to new experiences that he isn't able to achieve when in the orphanage. But it’s evident that the most important thing for him is just to be a loved member of the family and to connect with the family which is something he doesn’t have.
“There is a real sense of belonging when he is here.”
The Summer Rest and Recuperation Programme gives children, who come from impoverished backgrounds and state-run institutions, a health-boosting reprieve from the toxic environment and high levels of radiation to which they are exposed. During the month-long stay, radiation levels in the children drop by nearly 50% and up to two years is added to their life expectancy.