Private humanitarian responses to disaster vulnerabilities: The Chernobyl children from Belarus in Italy

Abstract

This article aims to understand how children’s vulnerabilities function in humanitarian aid programmes. Different types of vulnerabilities that emerged as a result of and in response to the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986) during recuperation of the affected children from Belarus in their Italian host families are examined. It is shown that while the initiation of aid was based on directly disaster-related vulnerabilities (radiation-related vulnerabilities), the outcomes of this aid were influenced by indirectly disaster-related vulnerabilities (social vulnerabilities).

Chronic crisis and nuclear disaster humanitarianism: recuperation of Chernobyl and Fukushima children in Italy

“…In comparison, small-scale humanitarianism is represented by local, grass-roots and vernacular initiatives (Rozakou, 2016;Zhukova, 2020a). Brković (2016) coined the term 'vernacular humanitarianism' to describe emergent humanitarian forms of life other than large-scale international humanitarianism in different parts of the world.…”

“…First, small-scale humanitarianism refrains from the application of projects as transferable toolkits around the world (Dunn, 2012) by operating locally within a particular context and with specialised knowledge. Second, small-scale humanitarianism avoids the separation of infrastructures (for example, living and eating spaces) between aid providers and aid recipients (Brković, 2016), allowing for personal connections and social boundary crossing (Zhukova, 2019b;2020a;2020b). Finally, small-scale humanitarianism moves beyond the categorisation of human existence as a 'zone of exception' (Agamben, 2005) and offers alternative ways of being (Zhukova, 2018a;2018b).…”

“…Italy has been the most active country in recuperating Chernobyl children, hosting 50 per cent of all children recuperated abroad (Zhukova, 2018a;2019b;2020a). Other countries actively involved in nuclear humanitarianism include Germany, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and the UK (Gubarevich, 2016).…”

“…Since 1988, Spain has been recuperating up to 10,000 Saharawi children in its territory. Italy has also hosted Saharawi children, even though it was not involved in the Western Sahara conflict (Zhukova, 2020a).…”

“…Second, the article sets out to engage the concept of chronic crisis within humanitarian studies (Dunn, 2012;Fassin, 2012;Brković, 2016;Feldman, 2016;Rozakou, 2016;Hilhorst, 2018;Zhukova, 2019b;2020a). In humanitarian research, the commonly used concepts are chronic emergency (Macrae and Leader, 2000;Munslow and O'Dempsey, 2010) and protracted crisis (FAO, 2010), which draw quite a pessimistic scenario of humanitarianism's ability to improve the human condition.…”