Activity Report

Gomel State Medical University Students Meet Nagasaki People

For 17 days from July 28, 2007, NASHIM organized a training program for four medical students from Gomel, Belarus, the area most severely affected by the Chernobyl accident. They had suffered from thyroid cancer in childhood, an experience that prompted them to pursue a medical career. During their stay in Nagasaki, NASHIM, with Associate Professor Takamura of NagasakiUniversity acting as coordinator, held an event in which the trainees met with students from Nagasaki University School of Medicine and KassuiHigh School.

The event opened with Associate Professor Takamura’s talk about the Chernobyl accident. This was followed by the Belarusian students’ presentations on their daily life and activities, illustrated with slides. They also recapitulated the Chernobyl accident, referring to the post-Chernobyl situation today. In the second half of the event, the Belarusian and Nagasaki students exchanged information and opinions on the current status of Hibakusha medical care in Belarus and what Nagasaki can and should do in the future, drawing on its experience of the atomic bomb.

Mr. Motoharu, a Nagasaki University School of Medicine student who had visited Belarus, said: “Many Belarusian students study hard while getting firsthand experience in medical care through part-time jobs. As a medical student, I hold them in high esteem, as they’re dignified and highly motivated. They also have firm ideas about peace, probably because their country is still young, as an independent state after a long history of war and invasion.” Ms. Maryna Ivanchykava, a GomelStateMedicalUniversity student, spoke of her dreams: “I understand how irradiation victims feel because I’m one of them. I hope to be a doctor who can provide them not only with medical treatment, but moral support as well. I intend to work in Gomel as a doctor, of course, but I’d like to come back to Nagasaki if people here will accept me, because I want to enrich my knowledge and experience.”

In closing the event, Associate Professor Takamura said: “Even 20 years after the Chernobyl disaster, there is still need for NASHIM to provide doctors and students, who are our hopes for the future, with opportunities to study and learn about medical care for Hibakusha. I hope that NASHIM will continue reaching out from Nagasaki to young people, who will lead Hibakusha medical care around the world.”