Ukrainian Gift of Life reports on its activity for past year (03/14/99)

Ukrainian Gift of Life reports on its activity for past year

GLEN ROCK, N.J. - The Ukrainian Gift of Life Inc. held its third annual meeting on January 23 followed by a reception attended by many volunteers and supporters. Also attending was the 25th child with congenital heart disease that the organization brought to the United States for surgery, Roman Pekaryuk, and his mother, Magdalyna, as well as another child, Khrystyna Bahlay and her mother, Natalya.

The organization's president, George M. Kuzma, highlighted the accomplishments of the past year beginning with an update on the program with the Rotary and Montefiore Hospital in New Jersey in which 16 children underwent successful heart surgery in 1998.

He said, "Although the fanfare of placards, flowers and videos at the airport have subsided, the children and their mothers are greeted by a Ukrainian-speaking member of the organization and receive all the support they need during their stay."

A recent letter from Lviv Rotary President Bohdan Kotyuk confirms this: "We hear from the mothers of the children of all the warmth and goodness ...You open for these mothers and their children not only your homes but your good hearts."

Mr. Kuzma also reported that plans for the future include a program beginning in March with Rush Hospital and Rotary District 1 in Chicago under Ukrainian Gift of Life coordinators, Myron and Daria Jarosewych. Four additional surgeries are also currently scheduled at Montefiore Hospital.

Treasurer Katherine Suchay Kuzma spoke of two other programs: raising $7,500 for the translation, publication and distribution in Ukraine of the textbook "Ultrastonography" and financing Dr. Henry Issenberg's trip to Ukraine to perform diagnostic and intervention procedures. Dr. Issenberg, a pediatric cardiologist who administers the program at Montefiore Hospital, reported that it will be a generation before more complex surgeries can be performed in Ukraine.

The organization's medical advisor, Dr. Robert Tozzi, director of pediatric cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center, applauded the number of cases supported by Rotary and Montefiore Hospital in one year. Discussion included establishing a hospital relationship closer to Philadelphia where there is a large Ukrainian community for support, funding surgeries that can be done in Ukraine at $1,000 per child, and financing teams of doctors to do surgeries and training in Ukraine. The study of mortality rates as well as control systems for programs in Ukraine are topics also being addressed.

Also at the meeting, Stefania Bryant accepted the newly created position of fund-raising coordinator.

During the reception, the Shaklee Corp. Community Caretakers Award plaque and $1,000 check were presented to George and Kathy Kuzma for "bringing people together for the common good of enhancing as well as prolonging lives ... and heightening community awareness to fulfill a critical need."

Col. Vasyl Sydorenko, military adviser to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations, eloquently summed up the meeting when he noted, "you have not only provided our children with an opportunity to be healed in body, but also in spirit."

Those interested in the program, or to make a tax-deductible contribution, can write to: Ukrainian Gift of Life. Inc., 233 Rock Road, Suite 333, Glen Rock, NJ 07451; telephone, (201) 652-5505.

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