The group, still known as the "three amigos," obtained visas to Belarus and took the train from Berlin, through Poland and staggered out of station in Minsk at 2 a.m.

There Paul Moore would meet Tataiana, an 8-year-old with leukemia and her mother in the onco-hemotological center at the children's hospital. The child had developed the cancer due to the high concentration of radiation, spread to that area of Belarus in the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster of 1986.

"I will give you my child if you will take her to the United States," the mother had begged.

The reverend offered his prayer for them and the mother looked skeptical. "What would it take for you to believe in the possibility of God?" he asked.

She replied without pause, "1,000 vials of Metho-trexate," the leading injectable oncological drug at the time.

That moment was a defining one for the founder of Citihope International, a charity dedicated to bringing medicine to hospitals in need. Six months later Moore, working with the pharmaceutical company, delivered over 2,000 vials of the drug to the children's hospital. Fifteen years later, he met up with Tatiana. She is now a pediatric oncologist in the same unit that helped save her life.

April 26, 2006 will mark the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. Stakeholders in Belarusian and Eurasian culture and politics gathered Wednesday to raise awareness of the ongoing problems in Belarus, especially elevated levels of childhood cancers, and to highlight a conference that will be held in Minsk during the anniversary.

"This is not an easy task," said Mikhail Khvostov, Belarusian ambassador to the United States. "Our minds and our hearts remember that terrible day."

Over half of the radioactive fallout from the accident at the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine, landed in neighboring Belarus, affecting one-third of the country's land mass. The government of the former Soviet republic continues to pay heavily for the mistake.

"The accident has imposed a heavy burden on the national budget of Belarus," said the ambassador.

Tuesday's event represented the desire on the part of groups like Citihope and Chernobyl Children's Project International to lift that burden as the 20 anniversary approaches. "We want to help to move them toward a free market economy," said Moore. "We want to see the county of Belarus stand large and tall as a sustainable democracy. The way we do that is not by making political speeches, but just be being present and doing the good that Citihope is known for."

Chernobyl is a unique disaster, with effects that could last for centuries as radioactive materials slowly decay. Those gathered at the embassy want to make sure that this is not forgotten, even twenty years after the reactor exploded.

"I see the world turn to help in natural disasters like a hurricane or an earthquake," said Robert Sherretta, vice-president of the Eurasia Center which sponsored the event. "But here is a man-made disaster that will be around for thousands of years and there is not the effort to assist."

The event was part of a concentrated effort to spread awareness of the continuing medical and economic problems that plague the Chernobyl-affected area of Belarus. And it seems to be working.

"I thought I knew all the good people in the Unites States who knew Belarus and cared about its problems," said embassy counselor Pavel Shidlovsky. "But now I see that is not true, there is more support than I ever imagined."

Shidlovsky who serves the ambassador in all Chernobyl related matters emphasized the need for economic development in Belarus.

"Twenty years have shown us that although there are still difficulties, this is not a humanitarian emergency any more; people live normal lives," he said. "But people still need assistance to sustain economic development, to develop agricultural areas, and to continue social and psychological rehabilitation. And the twentieth anniversary represents the best moment to attract donors from the international community."

And despite tense political relations the United States is the number two donor to Belarus in matters of Chernobyl and is continuing to lend support. The State Department has coordinated with Citihope on an airlift mission to bring medicine and other supplies to Minsk in April just after the anniversary.

The World Bank is set to review a $50 million Chernobyl development project, which will bring services like a natural gas pipeline to villages away from the main cities. The project proposal is scheduled to go before the Board of Governors sometime in the spring.

While the anniversary offers a chance to look back at the tragedy Shidlovsky said that it is not a time for sadness. "This time is a sign of human resilience," he said. "The people who went through it are not victims, they are survivors. Through their survival they can aspire to a better life and better fortune."

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