Let us help orphans of Ukraine receive eyeglasses (07/27/97)

Let us help orphans of Ukraine receive eyeglasses

Appeal to the Ukrainian community of the U.S. from the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee.

At the present time, there is a great need for eyeglasses for orphans in Ukraine. There are 686 children's institutions called "internats" in Ukraine today, with a total population of over 136,000 children, 16,000 of whom are orphans. One half of the 136,000 institutionalized children suffer from some form of physical or mental deficiency.

There is a committee to assist Ukrainian orphans and needy children in Ukraine headed by Dr. Ivan Kark, a retired colonel of the U.S. Army. This assistance program consists of an eye examination and the provision of a pair of corrective glasses, if needed. This program operates in close cooperation with, and under the umbrella of, the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (UUARC) in Philadelphia.

To date, two regions of Ukraine, Kharkiv and Kherson, have been covered. Fifty two (52) internats with 2,719 children have already received eyeglasses at a cost of $7,292. The next plan, which is already under way, is to assist ten additional regions: Chernihiv - 814 children ($4,070), Sumy - 953 children ($4,665), Zhytomyr - 798 children ($3,990), Vinnytsia - 1,163 children ($5,815), Volyn - 888 children ($4,440), Zakarpattia - 1,259 children ($6,295), Chernivtsi - 675 children ($3,375), Kirovohrad - 919 children ($4,595), Zaporizhia - 1,413 children ($7,065), and Mykolaiv - 1,330 children ($6,650).

A contract on behalf of the ten regions was signed on April 10, 1997, by the UUARC representative in Ukraine, Dr. Kark, with the eyeglass factory in Izium, Ukraine, for 10,000 pairs of eyeglasses. The cost of one pair of eyeglasses is $5 and in accordance with the contract, UUARC has to pay $50,000 to the Izium factory by August 1997.

The executive board of the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee is appealing to the Ukrainian community to support the above eyeglasses for orphans project in Ukraine. An individual or an institution desiring to fund eyeglasses for children within one (or more) of the 27 regions of Ukraine should call the UUARC at (215) 728-1630, or send a contribution to the following address: United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, Inc., 1206 Cotman Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111.

For the Executive Board of the UUARC: Dr. Larissa Kyj, president; Dr. Bohdan T. Hnatiuk, vice-president, treasurer; Stepan Hawrysz, executive director; Dr. Natalia Pazuniak, secretary.

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