Ukrainian women attend ICW meeting (07/27/97)

Ukrainian women attend ICW meeting

by Iryna Kurowyckyj

OTTAWA - The International Council of Women's 28th Triennial Meeting was held here from June 15-22. Over 250 delegates from 35 national women's councils around the world participated in this meeting. The opening ceremonies took place in the Canadian Parliament Building.

In 1888 in Washington, women leaders from eight different countries gathered to establish the International Council of Women (ICW). Today the ICW has 79 councils around the world, is one of the oldest women's international non-governmental organization in existence and has a strong presence in the United Nations.

The National Council of Women of Ukraine became members of the ICW in Oslo, Norway in 1920. The next meeting was held in Washington in 1925, and it was a somber moment for the women from Ukraine since they were not issued a visa to attend this meeting. Instead the Ukrainian women were represented by Ukrainian Americans and Ukrainians from Switzerland.

It was at this meeting that the question arose as to whether, in the absence of a Ukrainian government in Ukraine, the National Council of Women in Ukraine (NCWU) could remain a member of the ICW. After the Washington meeting, the NCWU was dropped from the membership list of the ICW. As a result, Ukrainian women living throughout the free world realized their responsibility to their sisters in Ukraine who could no longer speak for themselves.

Ukrainian women formed organizations such as the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, founded in 1925; the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada, founded in 1926; the Ukrainian National Women's League of Australia, founded in 1946. They affiliated their organizations with the National Council of the ICW in their respective country and through these councils were able to attend international meetings and speak of the hardships faced by women, family and children under the Soviet regime.

At this most recent meeting of the ICW, the U.S. delegation included three members from the UNWLA. They were the UNWLA president and member of the NCW/US board of directors, Anna Krawchuk; Maria Tomorug, member of the NCW/US executive committee and past vice-president of the UNWLA; and Iryna Kurowyckyj, honorary president of NCW/US, a U.N. NGO representative for the ICW and vice president of the UNWLA.

Since the Canadian Council hosted his conference, there was a large participation from the affiliated organization: Jean Mekiteek, NCW/Canada, convener of the Committee on Education; Helen Semenuk, past national convener on the Committee on Human Rights; Maria Tkachuk, Helen Melenyk-Marko and Laudie Ann Collis from the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada and Olha Zaverucha.

The World Federation of the Ukrainian Women's Organizations had two observers, Myroslava Zahribelny and Volodymyra Luczkiw.

The 28th Triennial Meeting was a significant meeting in the history of Ukrainian women's movement since three women from Kyiv attended this meeting as observers, the first women from Ukraine to attend an ICW meeting since 1920.

Maria Drach, president of the Women's Society (Zhinocha Hromada) was the first to receive sponsorship to this meeting from the NCW/Canada Helen Hnatyshyn Fund. This fund was established by Helen Hnatyshyn, the former president of NCW/Canada and the mother of Ray Hnatyshyn, governor general of Canada, for the purpose of bringing women from Ukraine to ICW meetings when Ukraine became independent .

Dr. Ludmila Porochniak, a medical doctor, accompanied Mrs. Drach and translated for Mrs. Drach and Oksana Kuts, who was sponsored by the UNWLA, is the editor-in-chief of "Through a Women's Eyes" and is project coordinator of the U.N. Department of Public Information in Kyiv.

The topic of Chornobyl was discussed at the meeting, and a recommendation to "Support the Child of Chornobyl" was fully supported by the plenary session. Dr. Porochniak read a statement in which she stressed the need to help the children of Chornobyl and people of all ages who were harmed by the disaster. She also said that AIDs has become a major concern in Ukraine and the need to educate people about this disease is very urgent.

During the conference the group on "General Well-being" addressed the issues of health, environment, habitat and nutrition. Mrs. Kurowyckyj coordinated this group and supplied information on the needs of people in Chornobyl and Mrs. Krawchuk, gave an informative presentation on the Chornobyl disaster.

A new president was elected to lead the ICW into the next century, Pnina Herzog of Israel, and the Israeli Ambassador held a reception in her honor at his home.

Special receptions took place at Rideau Hall, the home of Canada's Governor General Romeo Leblanc and Mme. Leblanc, who is the honorary president of National Council of Women of Canada, in the Grand Hall of the Museum of Civilization, where the first Ukrainian church in Canada was on display. A gala dinner was held at the National Center to end the meeting.

Later, on Embassy Night, members of the Ukrainian, Ukrainian Canadian and Ukrainian American delegations were invited to the Embassy of Ukraine in Ottawa.

The next Triennial Conference of the ICW will be held in Finland in the year 2000. Ukrainian women throughout the world hope that at this conference in Finland, the NCW of Ukraine will once again become a member of this international organization.

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