Participants of "Miss Ukraine Universe-2016" visited Chernobyl to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the tragedy that changed the lives of Ukrainians

One of the points of the intensive program of candidates training to the Final of the contest "Miss Ukraine Universe"-2016 was an unusual trip to Chernobyl and the Ghost town Pripiat, organized by the organizing Committee together with the Charity Fund "Maibutnii Kyiv". This unusual excursion was organized for a reason, 2016 is the year of a sad anniversary - the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

"It is a well known international practice for beauty pageants to support social and charitable projects with the aim of attracting public attention to a particular issue. For us this year was not an exception too and we agreed to support the initiative of the Fund and to attract public attention to manmade disaster that caused a stir in the entire planet 30 years ago, whose consequences are not eliminated till now. The excursion to the exclusion zone has become very crucial for the participants " – Anna Filimonova, the organizer of the contest "Miss Ukraine Universe" says about the project.

All candidates admitted that they have visited such tour for the first time and they have never been to "the Zone of estrangement" and destroyed Chernobyl nuclear power station. Another item of the program was a visit to the object "Chernobyl-2", a huge 150-meter antenna of the radar station, there were only three pieces throughout the Soviet Union and during day and night they were on guard of safety and security of the entire Soviet Union. But the main impression was made by the visit of the mural, written on one of the walls of the huge cooling tower of the 5-th unfinished Chernobyl reactor. This art-object appeared a few months ago and it was also timed to the 30th anniversary of the reactor explosion. The author of the large wall graffiti has become a well-known Australian artist Guido van Helten. He took a photo of one of the liquidators of the accident, made by a famous Ukrainian photographer Igor Kostin (1936 – 2015), who was directly at Chernobyl during the disaster and documented all the events on photo and video-film and he received a very strong dose of radiation. This photo of the liquidator has become very resonant in the world and dozens of world authoritative media has typed and published it. Despite the limited residence time near the destroyed reactor the wall work of Guido van Helten has turned out very good and realistic, literally showing the full tragedy of the disaster. All expenses associated with the production of the mural and stay of the best Australian artist in Ukraine, were taken by the Charity Fund "Maibutnii Kyiv", the main patron of which is Frenchman Bertrand Coste, who have been leading his business in Ukraine for more than 20 years. Thanks to Bertrand Costa a lot murals appeared on houses and buildings of modern Kiev for the last few years. Also for more than 10 years Charity Fund "Maibutnii Kyiv" has been financing the excavations of Trypillian antiquities in Ukraine, the reconstruction of the Lviv square in Kiev, and creation of the monument to Anna of Kyiv, which will be installed at the territory of the architectural-historical reserve "Sophia of Kyiv". The finalists of the contest "Miss Ukraine Universe"-2016 captured themselves on the background of an unusual art object.