UUARC fund seeks to help disabled young mother in Ukraine

PHILADELPHIA - In 2002, Oksana Koren was taking a walk with her 4-year-old daughter along a country road. Suddenly, her daughter's life was ended, and hers was turned into a living hell by the drunk driver who crashed into them.

Ms. Koren who is now 27, is asking for help. Her little girl is gone, and she has had both legs amputated because of the accident. She relies totally on her mother but desperately wants to walk and become independent. She wrote to the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee: "I am a young woman - I don't want to stay an invalid in a wheelchair. I want to walk again!"

The UUARC's director in Kyiv, Vira Prinko, visited Ms. Koren to deliver $500 from the organization's Assistance Committee. This amount is to be matched by the Ukrainian community in Glen Spey, N.Y., but even with this donation, Ms. Koren will still be $1,900 short of the $2,900 required so she can be fitted for prostheses and walk on her own again. Ms. Prinko reports that Ms. Koren is very, very determined to become independent, and is also extremely brave. She has written to many institutions for help, including the president of Ukraine, and UUARC is the only organization to have responded to date.

Readers who would like to help Ms. Koren may send donations to: UUARC Inc., 1206 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19111, or via the web at www.uuarc.org (credit cards accepted online). Please write "Oksana Koren" on your donation.

Ms. Koren's letter to the UUARC ends with this sentence, "I am not a beggar, just a person who wants to be like everyone else!"

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 25, 2004, No. 30, Vol. LXXII

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