The 24 Belarusian youngsters left stranded at San Francisco International Airport last Tuesday when a teen from their summer exchange program decided she would stay with her host family in Petaluma are scheduled to return Sunday afternoon.
The youths, ages 7 to 17, and an adult chaperone are expected to board a United Airlines flight bound for Frankfurt, Germany. The plane is scheduled to depart at 2 p.m.
Their return Tuesday was postponed when an attorney for Tanya Kazyra, 16, who is the U.S. as part of the Petaluma-based Chernobyl Children?s Project, said Tanya would not be at the airport because she was filing for an extension of her visa.
That decision has angered the Belarusian government and threatened the group?s continuation.
Diane Decicio, president of the organization, said Friday night it?s likely Belarus will cancel the exchange program, as well as a number of others that place some 1,200 children living in the path of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster around the country that provide a respite for children
With the program threatened, many who were hoping to return next summer are sure to be saying their final farewells at the airport, she said.
Decicio had planned to leave the program on Tuesday. But she decided to stay with the program until flights for the 24 youths were rescheduled. She said the airline, which was seeking to charge $8,000 in change fees, waved the fees on Friday.
?This has been devastating to all of us,? she said.
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