THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FORUM

For the historical record: A look at our aid to Ukraine

by Ulana Diachuk
UNA President

This year Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora celebrated the 10th anniversary of the proclamation by the Ukrainian Parliament of the independence of Ukraine. After this historic proclamation, the Ukrainian citizenry overwhelmingly approved independence in the national referendum of December 1, 1991.

Prior to that date, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union being an obvious fact, the Ukrainian community on the American continent was confronted with the fact that Ukraine would be in dire need of help and that the Ukrainian diaspora would have to be financially ready for that task.

With this in mind, delegates to the 1990 Convention of the Ukrainian National Association unanimously approved the following resolution:

"In anticipation of the desire of the Ukrainian nation for self-determination and independence, and taking into account the foremost wishes of the delegates of this convention, the financial committee recommends to establish at the UNA a fund to aid Ukraine at a minimum amount of $250,000. The sources for such a fund are to be:

"1. a donation of $100,000 from the UNA to be included in the budget;

"2. a forceful drive for donations from the UNA membership;

"3. appeals to the membership to donate their dividend checks to the

UNA fund for the rebirth of Ukraine;

"4. donations from each convention delegate of $25 to that fund in order to underscore the importance and necessity to aid our brothers and sisters in Ukraine

"All UNA members will follow the example set by the delegates."

The experience of the past 10 years has been that Ukraine had many more projects in need of financial aid than the Ukrainian diaspora could fund.

However, for the historical record, for our own benefit and for those who are not convinced that Ukrainians abroad have indeed aided Ukraine, this is the proper time to sum up their work to aid Ukraine. All Ukrainian churches, many established Ukrainian organizations as well as the newly formed ones - not to mention thousands of individuals - were involved in aid to Ukraine.

The list below is published for the general information of the UNA membership and the community, which have contributed mightily to aid Ukraine. Listed are UNA projects supported by both the Fund for the Rebirth of Ukraine and the Ukrainian National Foundation.

We wish to express our gratitude to all our members who joined the UNA's action by endorsing their dividend checks or by directly contributing funds to aid Ukraine. Their donations enabled the UNA to successfully perform the task assigned the UNA by its 1990 Convention. (Lists of donors were previously published in the UNA's two newspapers, Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly.)

We encourage our members to continue their generosity; the need is still great in order for the Ukrainian nation to be reborn and become a truly democratic society.

AID TO UKRAINE 1990-2000: Overview of UNA-supported projects

BOOKS PUBLISHED
$136,988

"Basic Elements and Theory of a Market System" by Oleh Havrylyshyn
Four readers for schools in Ukraine
Rukh by-laws
Monograph on Rukh by Ludmilla Ivanchenko
Literaturna Ukraina - newsprint supplies
Children's book "Ivasyk Telesyk"
Book on church architecture
Book on Ukraine by Taras Hunczak
Financial-Investment Analysis by Jaroslav Komarnytsky and Ivan Jaremchuk
Reprint of "Ukrainians in the Diaspora" by J. Bachynsky
"The Repressive-Punitive System in Ukraine, 1917-1953" by Ivan Bilas

AID TO ORGANIZATIONS
$342,168

Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund - tri-state committee
Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund
Foundation for Democracy in Ukraine - Harvard Project
International Management Institute, Lviv
Sabre Foundation
Olzych Research Foundation - National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Stefanyk Library, Lviv
Freedom House - Ukraine voter awareness project
First World Forum of Ukrainians
Kyiv Music Festival
Center for Study of Historical Monuments, Institute of Archeology of Ukraine
Markian Shashkevich Memorial Fund
Lviv Regional Educational and Historical Organization Memorial
Nova Ukraina
Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine
Association of Ukrainians in Slovakia
Ukrainians for Democracy in Ukraine
Support of Ukraine's Olympic athletes
Ukrainian American Sports Center Tryzub - for visitors from Ukraine
Intensive Care Unit, Kyiv Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery
Academic advising workshops in Ukraine
American committee to honor Ukraine's victims of the Famine 1933

SCHOLARSHIPS
$73,072

Y. Demkiv - Southern Methodist University Law School
English language courses at Lviv University
Courses in Ukraine on "How to Apply to American Universities"
Yurij Shevchuk - New School for Social Research
International Management Institute, Kyiv
Vadim Sokolenko - Summer courses at Harvard University
M. Kravchuk - SABIT Banking and Finance internship
V. Tsaran - School for the Blind in Pennsylvania
Summer courses at Harvard University for students from Ukraine
Pre-entry for National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy courses
Ostroh Academy

UNA PROJECTS
$167,077

"Teaching English in Ukraine" project with Prosvita Society
Seminars in Ukraine on current methodologies in Teaching English

KYIV PRESS BUREAU
$177,610

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
$37,286

For victims of the Zakarpattia flooding
For miners in Krasnodon

OTHER
$237,310

Shipment of over 20,000 books from the Svoboda Book Store
Flight payment for Plast members from Ukraine
Flight payment for Mykhailo Horyn
Flight payment for Ukrainian participant of orientation at Library of Congress
Flight payment for G. Novakivsky, director of Ukrainian Museum in Lviv
Flight payment for delegate from Ukraine to conference at University of Penn.
Flight payment for Valerij Buymaester
Flight payment for delegate from Ukraine to conference in Copenhagen
Return of Trypilian museum display to Ukraine
Arabesques Drama Studio from Kharkiv
Freedom House conference
Offset printing machine for Plast Publishing
St. Volodymyr Foundation educational program, Poland
School of Ukrainian Studies, Priashiv

TOTAL
$1,171,511

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, October 21, 2001, No. 42, Vol. LXIX

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