A WOMAN has voiced fears for the life of her disabled grandson because the authorities in his native Belarus are preventing him being adopted by an Irish family.

Alexi Gribovskiy, 14, has been a regular summer visitor to Ireland under the programme giving children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident the opportunity of a holiday away from the debilitating home environment.

Alexi, who is hoping to get urgent surgery in Ireland for a congenital condition in his back, was about to officially become part of the Clinch family he stayed with in Trim when the law in his native country changed four years ago to block foreign adoptions.

Now his grandmother Anna has told RTE series Three 60 that she is Alexi’s only living relative since his mother died in 1998 and that she fears he will spend the rest of his life in a state-run institution after her death. “Without me he will perish,” said a tearful Gribovskiy. “He has no future here. Over in Ireland he will have a future. People with disability are protected better there than here.”

Many disabled children are put in institutions in the country, which bore the brunt of the radioactive fallout from the nuclear explosion at Chernobyl.

“There is always a place for hope in my heart,” said Gribovskiy. “I hope Alexi is adopted because if he isn’t I don’t know what will happen to him.”

Alexi grew up in Belarus but now speaks English with a Meath accent and calls David and Marie Clinch mam and dad. He has spent three of the past six years with the family.

In late 2004, Belarus closed for inter-country adoption purposes. In the RTE series on disability, David Clinch tells of his heartbreak over the refusal of the Belarusian government to allow the adoption of the young boy who has become like a son.

“I met Alexi six years ago when he came on the Rest and Recuperation Programme to Ireland. He became part of the family without us realising. He’s missing three vertebrae from the coccyx. It affects the kidneys. His whole system is affected by it. He needs a major operation. Even though he looks perfectly healthy he can’t continue the way he is. We will do all we can to get him over and get him adopted.

“If anything happened to (his grandmother), life would be very grim for Alexi. It’s very emotional for me going up there and another year has passed and nothing has happened, particularly when you consider him one of our own,” said Clinch, a volunteer with the Chernobyl Children’s Project, who was filmed by the RTE series on a recent trip to Belarus. “It’s very hard to leave him here when you think he should be at home in Ireland with us.”

Alexi said he often talks to his grandmother about adoption. “She thinks it is a great idea, especially as she knows about the family a lot. I have been travelling to Ireland for six years to the same family so they know me well. Also, because of the operation, that’s another thing.”

The Belarus government’s suspension of all international adoptions means many children born with a disability will spend their lives in state care. Three 60 travelled throughout the Chernobyl region, visiting the children and families who are left behind to endure the constant exposure to radiation and its effects.

The Belarusian u-turn left the Clinchs in the lurch, along with another 17 Irish families who had been approved for international adoption.

In September 2005, the Irish Adoption Board sent a delegation to Belarus to try to intercede on behalf of the 18 families. While the Belarusians refused to deal with individual cases, they have entered negotiations with Ireland for a bi- lateral agreement that would allow adoption between the two states.

“They are formal state-to-state agreements, so they do require a lot of teasing out,” said John Keegan, director of services at the Irish Adoption Board. “Given our written constitution, and the protection of the family here, those issues are still ongoing and they are with the Attorney General’s office for clarification. We have done what we can to see if something can be done. A lot of progress has been made and we’re still working through that.”

Clinch said: “It’s been going on four years now and the first couple of years we did a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and tried to go to the minister and everybody we could in Ireland. We tried to push it every way we could. We don’t seem to be getting anywhere. I don’t know where else we will go. We will exhaust all the avenues.”

Three 60: Chernobyl — A Disability and Adoption story will be shown on RTE One on Monday at 7.30pm

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