COMMUNITY CHRONICLE (01/06/02)

COMMUNITY CHRONICLE

New Haven national home aids CCRF

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - The New Haven Chapter of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund held its annual meeting on December 9, 2001, at St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Parish Hall to report on its latest projects in Ukraine.

The occasion also presented an opportunity for the officers of the Ukrainian National Home of New Havento present a symbolic check for $66,152 to the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund. The check reflects the proceeds from a sale of two local properties that the National Home donated equally to the CCRF and to the Orphans' Aid Society. CCRF representatives also expressed their gratitude to realtor Lydia Kynik who donated over $8,500 in real estate commissions from the sale to the two children's charities.

Among the featured speakers at the CCRF chapter's annual meeting were Olena Maslyukivska, a former Soros scholar and graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Ms. Maslyukivska is currently the in-country director for CCRF in Ukraine.

A native of Sharhorod, (Vinnytsia Oblast), she returned to New Haven to attend a three-day Yale conference sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Ms. Maslyukivska reported on the CCRF's efforts to combat infant mortality, its new neonatal intensive care units and on the overhaul of orphanages for children with multiple handicaps in Zaluchia and Znamianka.

Other speakers included Damian Thibodeau, who reviewed the New Haven chapter's role in organizing the Great Lakes Expedition of the Ukrainian tall ship Batkivschyna. Kathy Mychajluk presented the results of the "Viktory for Kids" fund-raiser for the CCRF featuring Olympic champion figure skater Viktor Petrenko and other international stars.

In 2002 CCRF plans to launch its 30th humanitarian airlift to Ukraine. Out of the total $49 million in humanitarian aid that Ukrainian American organizations have sent to Ukraine in the last 10 years, the CCRF alone accounts for more than $44 million worth of cargo (source: Ukrainian World Congress). The CCRF's partner hospitals have achieved substantial reductions in infant mortality and have improved remission rates for children's cancer and leukemia.

Ukrainian Gold Cross raises funds for families of opposition journalists

SILVER SPRING, Md. - Attendees at a fund-raiser organized by the Metropolitan Washington chapter of the Ukrainian Gold Cross had a firsthand look at why journalist Heorhii Gongadze made Kyiv officials uncomfortable. In a video supplied from Ukraine and routed through UGC president Natalia Iwaniw of Chicago, Mr. Gongadze was seen in several excerpts of interviews he conducted on the television show "Epicenter."

National Deputy Natalia Vitrenko, former Rada chairman and head of the Socialist Party Oleksander Moroz, Communist Party head Petro Symonenko, former Prime Minister Victor Yuschenko and President Leonid Kuchma were all on the receiving end of Mr. Gongadze's pointed questioning.

One Rada deputy who speaks only Russian had trouble explaining to Mr. Gongadze just why it was that he could not find the time to learn Ukrainian. Mr. Gongadze, who was born in Georgia of a Georgian father and a Ukrainian mother, noted that he himself had been in Ukraine only 10 years, but had managed to learn Ukrainian, whereas this representative of the people could not learn the language of the people he was mandated to represent.

Mr. Gongadze also questioned President Kuchma about the efficacy of continually hiring people and then criticizing their performance as inadequate. Other questions were equally pointed and made the interviewees by turn squirm with discomfort or respond in a condescending, patronizing fashion.

Preceding the video showing, Orest Deychakiwsky, professional staffer on the Helsinki Commission, delivered an overview of the significance of the lack of resolution in the Gongadze murder and the killings of other journalists and democratic activists in Ukraine in the context of U.S.-Ukraine relations. The commission, among other things, holds hearings and publishes research reports on human rights violations in Europe, provides observers in various nations to observe their elections and participates in U.S. delegations to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, of which Ukraine is a member.

Myroslava Gongadze also spoke, detailing the current status of her husband's case. "I still don't even have a death certificate," she noted. During the question and answer period she was asked why she does not hire a lawyer here in the United States to help pursue the case. She agreed that this would be an excellent idea, but "I haven't the funds to support such an effort."

Addressing an audience of about 70 in the hall of St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, which donated the use of its facility for the event, Ms. Gongadze also spoke of other unresolved murders of journalists and dissident activists in Ukraine, including the case of the late Ihor Aleksandrov.

She noted the importance of keeping in contact with the widows and families - not only for material, but for moral support as well. "I know how much it meant to me to receive letters and words of encouragement," she said.

The Ukrainian Gold Cross is a non-governmental organization that was established in New York in 1931. Among its various projects over the years, the UGC has sent children to camps both here and in Ukraine, has contributed toward the publication of Ukrainian literature, given scholarships to needy students and has supplied help to the families of political prisoners. As each branch of the UGC has its own specific projects, Branch 11 of Washington has chosen to aid the families of opposition journalists and other democratic activists who have died in Ukraine in the last decade since independence.

Proceeds from the November 25, 2001, event will be divided between the UGC's Gongadze Fund and a new drive started to help other journalists' widows in Ukraine.

For more information or to help the families of deceased dissident Ukrainian journalists, supporters may direct checks to the Ukrainian Gold Cross, c/o Natalka Gawdiak, 700 Winhall Way, Silver Spring, MD 20904-2070. Donations are tax-deductible.

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