Seryozha Mukamela - Semipalatinsk Victims Documentation (Kazakhstan: 1999)

Seryozha Mukamela was born with cerebral palsy. He cannot do anything for himself and needs care 24 hours a day. His father has left the family and Seryozha is now being looked after by his mother Irina and grandmother Raina, who is ill with cancer. There is hardly any money. The family tries to get by on Raina’s small pension and the money from selling vegetables that Irina grows in the garden. Nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk caused wide spread radioactive contamination in Kazakhstan. Around 1.7 million people have been used as guinea pigs by the military and been severely affected by radiation. The rates of cancers, leukemia, cardio vascular diseases, bone diseases and children born with physical or mental handicaps have increased dramatically since the testing started. In 1999, UNDP declared the region a disaster zone and called for wide spread support for the people living there.