Name: Why stay in Chernobyl? Because it's home.
Uploaded: 2013-10-31T14:58:15Z
Duration: 8 min 38 s
Description: Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident and, for the past 27 years, the area around the plant has been known as the Exclusion Zone. And yet, a community of about 200 people live there -- almost all of them elderly women. These proud grandmas defied orders to relocate because their connection to their homeland and to their community are "forces that rival even radiation."

Holly Morris: Why stay in Chernobyl? Because it's home.

Why stay in Chernobyl? Because it's home.

Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident and, for the past 27 years, the area around the plant has been known as the Exclusion Zone. And yet, a community of about 200 people live there -- almost all of them elderly women. These proud grandmas defied orders to relocate because their connection to their homeland and to their community are "forces that rival even radiation."

After Chernobyl’s disaster, nearly all were forced to flee the poisonous Exclusion Zone, yet about 200 elderly women returned and stayed, drawn by their ancestral roots. Many endured Stalin’s famines and Nazi occupation, so invisible radiation seemed a lesser threat than losing community and home. Despite dire warnings, these women have outlived many who relocated, showing the resilience that deep connection to land and belonging can offer. Their story reframes risk, revealing that for some, a sense of place is a vital force that can outweigh even deadly contamination.