In early June, a team from the Clean Futures Fund, an American organisation dedicated to social support for the communities of Ivankiv and Slavutych, as well as financial support for enterprises in the Exclusion zone, including the Chornobyl NPP, visited Ukraine.
One of the Foundation's projects is Dogs of Chornobyl, which aims to reduce the dogs population naturally by sterilising them, thereby creating safer conditions for Chornobyl NPP and Exclusion Zone employees. In addition to sterilisation, all dogs undergo medical examinations and vaccinations.
The last time veterinarians from the Clean Futures Fund (CFF) visited the plant site in October 2022. At that time 130 dogs, most of which live near the New Safe Confinement, passed through the hands of the veterinary team in a week.
"We were very pleased to see that no new puppies have appeared at all in the 7 months since our last visit to ChNPP site. This means that our sterilisation campaign in October was extremely successful. The rest of the dogs were healthy, we vaccinated them, gave them anti-parasite medication and everything looked very good," commented Dr Jennifer Betz, the Fund's leading veterinarian.
After the visit to ChNPP site and the Exclusion zone, the CFF team worked in Slavutych, the satellite town of the plant. Here they provided veterinary services to stray and domestic animals during 3 days.
The Found also delivered a large batch of medicines and equipment for military first aid kits: tourniquets, occlusive stickers, decompression needles, stretchers, etc. All of this was handed over to the Social and Psychological Centre of the city, which supports Slavutych soldiers who are currently fighting at the front.
The director of Slavutych City Hospital conducted an excursion for the Fund’s representatives around the future rehabilitation centre called “Human Clinic”. In partnership with the Regional Development Agency and the charitable foundation “ChNPP. Slavutych. Development” CFF purchased some equipment for the rehabilitation centre.
In addition, the Clean Futures Found team met with the staff and handed over financial assistance to the Chornobyl NPP Veterans Association, Slavutych Town Fire Department, the Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children and the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Centre “Blagodar”.