When Vanya Came Home

Alabama’s “Children of Chernobyl” program is a story that’s still unfolding. The Lee family, of Pelham, took in nine year old “Vanya” from the nation of Belarus in the year 2000. “Children of Chernobyl” was created to bring kids living in the shadow of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster to Alabama for medical treatment and a chance to escape the contamination. What the Lee family didn’t know was the effect Vanya’s visit would have on them twenty years later.