Teddi Treybig Lends a Hand to 
Our Work in Chernobyl  

Mrs. Teddi Treybig, wife of United Church of God pastor and author Dave Treybig of Lubbock, Texas has taken a special interest in our work in Chernobyl, Ukraine which had been devastated by the world's worst nuclear accident. She first read about Maurice Frohn's and my relief efforts to Ukraine on this website. We having been trying to help Dr. Vasyl Pasechnik continue to maintain and expand a one-of-a-kind rehabilitation center for handicapped children in Chernihev, a city of 320,000 about 40 miles east of the still-functioning Chernobyl nuclear power plant.  


Teddi Treybig with mother 
Audrey Goodrich in the background 

In partial fulfillment of Teddi's Master's Degree requirements she wrote an outstanding  paper  Chernobyl's Children accurately depicting the valiant work of Dr. Pasechnik in which he struggles against the mighty barriers of the overwhelming nature of the problem, lack of government funding and world apathy towards what happened seemingly long ago to many at Chernobyl. She used original accounts of our travels plus the original research of Dr. Yuriy Sayenko, Deputy-Director, the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, who conducted extensive research (consisting of over 10,000 interviews) on the physical, psychological, and sociological effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the affected population.  

Dr. Pasechnik's life's mission is to help rehabilitate children, many the direct victims of the ongoing effects of the original accident in 1986, plus the ongoing heightened levels of radiation and second generation genetic effects of this ugly manifestation of nuclear power gone out of control. During the Chernobyl accident he was chief pediatrician for the area and treated the first cases of radiated children exposed in eyesight of the nuclear reactor.

Through an associate of Teddi, her paper found its way to Dr. Judy Wilimas of International Outreach Program and Dr, Lynne Bowers, Administrative Director of the International Outreach Program at world-renowned St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. This. then, led to an invitation to Dr. Pasechnik to tour and speak to the medical staff at this world famous center. This he did on Tuesday, August 17th. We were graciously hosted by Teddi's daughter, Sharon Treybig, who then lived in Memphis and now in Dallas, Texas. Sharon was heavily involved in collect medical supplies for the container that was shipped to Ukraine on December 22, 1999.

Teddi Treybig also arranged for us to visit her family which is involved with rehabilitation work in Columbia, Missouri. We had useful discussions with her brother-in-law Paul Ratcliffe, director of Woodhaven Sheltered Enterprises and her sister Dr. Kim Ratcliffe, Director of Special Education in Columbia, Missouri. We were once again graciously hosted by her mother, Audrey Goodrich in Columbia, Missouri. While in Columbia we also visited a state of the art Howard Rusk Rehabilitation Center and given a tour by Dr. Steve Gnatz, chairman.

I would like to extend a heartfelt and special thanks to Teddi Treybig for her friendship and support.  The success of Dr. Vasyl Pasechnik's trip was largely made possible through her writing Chernobyl's Children, her contacts and then her driving from Lubbock, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee to meet us and then drive together from Memphis to Columbia, Missouri.

Using her special talents Teddi Treybig has formed a service called Personality Dynamics, devoted to solving life's personality puzzles.  She can be reached on email at tedditreybig@door.net.

Victor Kubik
January 7, 2000

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