Welsh family recalls caring for Chernobyl evacuee decades after his rescue
Anton Honchanka, evacuated from Belarus as a child after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, remembers the warmth of the Welsh family that hosted him during a four-week stay in the UK.
At age eleven, Anton Honchanka left his contaminated hometown of Gomel, Belarus, to join a UK evacuation program organized after the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. Arriving in the summer of 1999, he first stayed with a Welsh household before moving to the home of Peter and Linda Amoss in Llanharry, where he and another boy, Dmitry, were treated as members of the family. Anton describes the peaceful, cosy environment, daily outings to places like St Fagans and Oakwood Theme Park, and the deep friendship that developed with the Amoss children, Gethin and Charlotte.
The Chernobyl Children’s Lifeline initiative, supported by local communities and charities such as the north Wales branch chaired by Gerrie Bayley, provided clean air, nutrition and medical checks that lowered radiation levels in the children. Reflecting on the experience, Anton, now 38 and a father of two, says Wales holds a permanent place in his heart and hopes to meet his former host family again.