DATE: Wednesday, July 23, 1997              TAG: 9707230557

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PAM STARR, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   92 lines

RUSSIAN CHILDREN FIND BEACH ``REALLY COOL''

Regina Khalilova hesitated for a split second, then flung herself down the blue serpentine tunnel at Ocean Breeze Fun Park.

The 10-year-old resident of Central Siberia had never heard of - much less seen - a water park before arriving in Virginia Beach last month. But some experiences, such as the thrill of hurtling through a plastic tunnel into a pool of chlorinated water are universal.

``It is really cool!'' Regina sputtered in Russian to her interpreter, Marina Gioulmisarova, as she wiped wet strands of hair from her green eyes. ``I went really fast!''

Gioulmisarova, a 22-year-old graduate student from Moscow, had gone before Regina and agreed with the girl's assessment.

``There is nothing like this in Russia,'' she said, squinting against the searing sun. ``This is the best thing they can do here because it's so cold in Russia. It's wonderful!''

Hailing from heavily polluted areas of Russia, Regina and five other children were in Virginia Beach courtesy of the Virginia United Methodist Church, which sponsors an international program to help Russian children regain their health. They stayed with families that belong to the Sandbridge Community Chapel.

They suffer from asthma, allergies, frequent colds, liver and kidney problems and stomach ailments. Regina Khalilova has a condition that could cause cardiac arrythmia. While a few weeks in the sun couldn't change that, it improved her spirits, and for many church members that made her visit here worthwhile.

Their health started to improve the day they arrived, said Svetlana Kouznetsova, the director of international programs for a Moscow-based disabled children's organization. She works in tandem with The Children's Program of the Russia Initiative, a mission of the United Methodist Church of Virginia, which has sponsored more than 300 Russian students since 1993.

Just by breathing clean air, drinking pure water, eating fresh food and taking vitamins, these children increase their chances of living longer even though they will return to areas heavy with large amounts of radioactive waste.

The children are from Chelyabinsk or Seversk where the survival rate is 50 percent by the age of 25, she said. Chelyabinsk is in the Ural Mountains region while Seversk is in Central Siberia.

``Everyone knows about Chernobyl (the nuclear accident in 1986 which claimed nearly 8,000 lives) but no one knows that there are many more accidents in other areas,'' said Kouznetsova. ``Because of the economy, people have no chance to move anyplace else. So our people continue to have disease.''

The children who visited Virginia Beach live by the Siberian Chemical Combine in Seversk, which has five nuclear reactors, a reprocessing facility for uranium and plutonium and storage facilities for radioactive waste. The combine has experienced 23 accidents since 1954, resulting in releases of radioactivity to the environment, according to Bellona, an international environmental agency.

The Russian program of the Methodist Church began in 1993. Kouznetsova has been there since the beginning, traveling with different children each year. And every year, she said, she sees an incredible change in the ones who stay in another country such as America, Australia or Spain.

Visiting for that short time improves the children's survival rate by 50 percent, she said. Each student is evaluated by a medical doctor before and after the trip and checked at regular intervals throughout the first year.

``It's a magic thing,'' she said. ``Their parents say it gives their kids energy the whole year. Maybe it's psychological but that's important, too.

``Usually, we have two pictures of children arriving and leaving,'' she added. ``The second picture looks like another group of kids - they have different faces, they're suntanned and smiling.''

Stephen Butler, pastor of Epworth United Methodist Church in Norfolk, said that he was skeptical, too, until he traveled to Chelyabinsk last fall. Butler is the director of the program and has visited Russia four times since 1993.

``I thought it was unbelievable until I went to Chelyabinsk,'' he said. ``You can physically see the difference in siblings who had been in the program and those who had not.''

The children enjoyed outings to local malls, cookouts, the Oceanfront, Busch Gardens, Ocean Breeze, and other attractions. They left for Washington on July 12.

``For three weeks they are absolutely happy,'' said Kouznetsova. ``Can you remember a time like that? They go home with bags of presents and enough vitamins for the whole year.

``The only time they cry is at the airport when they're leaving,'' she added with a laugh. ``When they go home they try to tell everybody what a wonderful country this is.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo

D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/The Virginian-Pilot

Regina Khalilova, 10, visiting from Central Siberia, starts down a

water slide at Ocean Breeze Fun Park in Virginia Beach, as

interpreter Marina Khabarov waits her turn during the July 3 outing.

Regina and five other Russian youngsters were guests of Sandbridge

Community Chapel during their stay here. They left for Washington on

July 12.

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