"Jerry's kids" will be "Anatoly's kids" later this month when Soviet celebrities led by former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov hold a 24-hour telethon in Moscow to aid 1.5 million victims of radiation released in the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident, including 160,000 children, many of whom have leukemia.
The April 26 event, marking the fourth anniversary of the accident, will be modeled after successful American telethons such as the annual Labor Day broadcast hosted by comedian Jerry Lewis.Some 100 million to 150 million Soviet citizens are expected to tune in to entertainment provided at Moscow's Rossiya concert hall by scores of Soviet celebrities, including movie star Ludmila Gurchenkov. Organizers predict hundreds of thousands of citizens will call a toll-free number to make their pledges.
Despite the involvement of a celebrity of the stature of Karpov, the telethon faces serious obstacles. For example, Soviet citizens don't have checking accounts or credit cards, so collecting money that is pledged will be difficult, especially in remote regions.
Karpov, at a press conference Friday in Washington to drum up American support, said he hopes that at least a portion of the telethon will be broadcast in the United States and other Western nations. Negotiations are currently under way with various American TV networks.
Organizers say there is the potential to raise $10 million to $15 million in the West for the purchase of badly needed medical supplies and the establishment of an international diagnostic center in Minsk.
"Even today, we don't understand to the full extent the scale of the tragedy of Chernobyl," Karpov said. "That is why we call on the people of the world to help."
The telethon will not be the first ever in the Soviet Union. In January, the Soviet Children's Fund raised some 100 million rubles with a telethon broadcast within the Soviet Union. Another $1.5 million in hard currency was donated from private individuals and organizations, including $100,000 donated by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
The ruble doesn't buy much inside the Soviet Union and is virtually worthless on international currency exchange markets, so the event's organizers are eager to attract donations from Western countries.
Tamara Maksimova, a television commentator from Leningrad, said there had been some concern that Soviet citizens would not respond to appeals to charity. "Unfortunately in the 70 years of Soviet power, we have lost all the traditions of giving to charity," she said.
But the response to the January broadcast was overwhelming, with even the poorest people donating what they could, Maksimova said. Some gave religious icons that had been in their families for generations.