Above: LEFT: L/R Jim Douglas (Board Director, CCPI USA), Adi Roche, CEO, Chernobyl Children's Project International, Mrs Yushchenko, First Lady of Ukraine, Dr Bill Novick, Cardiac Surgeon and Sherrie Douglas (Board Director, CCPI USA - at an inaugural meeting in Kiev. Above: Right: L/R Sherrie Douglas and Adi Roche with Arseniy who is just 4 months old

At the Inaugural Meeting, a new Cardiac programme for child surgeries across four of the major cities in Ukraine was launched. CCPI is making a major investment of over $300,000 dollars in a joint collaboration between the US, Ukraine and Ireland to undertake surgeries in Kiev, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Odessa throughout 2008.

Dr Novick said, 'today we have made history and launched a new cardiac programme into Ukraine where over 6,000 children are on a waiting list for surgery. 50% of children are not operated on in Ukraine because of lack of facilities and training. Over the next five years, our cardiac teams will perform critically-needed child surgeries and we will reduce this waiting list to zero', said Dr Novick.

Without the intervention of the CCPI Cardiac Programme many of these chidren would die within 3 to 5 years. These surgeries are practically routine in Ireland and the US but not in Ukraine. When CCPI first began the cardiac programme in Belarus in 2003 there were over 7,000 children on a waiting list for critical heart surgery. At the time the list was growing by an estimated 800 to 1,000 children born annually with the congenital heart defect 'Chernobyl Heart'. In the past 5 years, this waiting list has been reduced down to under 2,500 children.

CCPI will replicate the success of the cardiac programme in Belarus into Ukraine by providing diagnostics, surgery and training during each cardiac mission. While in Ukraine, Dr Novick and the International Children's Heart Foundation will work side by side with Ukrainian colleagues providing continuous education, training and expertise.

Adi Roche said, 'through these critical surgeries, Dr Novick and his teams will save the lives of thousands more children in Ukraine. I have witnessed at first-hand the miracle of these surgeries in the operating theatre and would like us to rededicate ourselves today to protecting life and remind ourselves that nothing in life is more precious than life itself'.