Ruslana performs in Kyiv concert benefiting Ukraine's ailing children (05/22/05)

Ruslana performs in Kyiv concert benefiting Ukraine's ailing children

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Amidst bursting fountains and erupting fireworks, Ruslana and her crew flaunted their wild dances on May 17 as part of a benefit concert to raise money to benefit ailing children and young victims of Chornobyl.

The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund, a diaspora-led charity organization, had organized the concert with Ruslana and her promoters, who devoted all the concert's proceeds to support the Dzherelo Children's Rehabilitation Center in Lviv and two hospitals in Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk.

Before an international audience of between 2,000 and 3,500 gathered at the Arena Entertainment Complex on the Khreschatyk's west end, the concert demonstrated the high standards of choreography and pyrotechnics to which Ruslana and her staff have raised Ukrainian performance.

The concert also boosted the Relief Fund's status with Ukraine's new government led by President Viktor Yushchenko, who expressed his willingness to help expand the organization's efforts, said Dr. Zenon Matkiwsky, who co-founded the organization in 1990 with his wife, Nadia.

"We have absolute, total support," Dr. Matkiwsky said. "In fact, we are welcoming anyone interested to get on this bandwagon to help develop programs in Ukraine."

Specifically, the relief fund is working to create a consortium to develop medical grant programs in Ukraine for pediatrics, particularly treating children with birth defects, said Dr. Matkiwsky, who is recruiting funds, corporations or individuals to contribute.

CCRF will also work with eight perinatology centers throughout Ukraine, Dr. Matkiwsky said, with the goal of establishing one in every oblast. A perinatology center would provide, for example, early AIDS testing that would prevent the virus from passing from mother to infant, he underscored.

The fund also plans to further develop two additional infant cardiac surgery departments in order to prevent birth defects, and work with 11 partner hospitals in improving their intensive care units.

"The goal is to prevent as many premature deaths as possible," Dr. Matkiwsky underscored.

Ukraine currently has no bone marrow transplant unit, and CCRF is trying to create another consortium to create such a unit where leukemia patients would be treated.

The Matkiwskys spent much of the concert seated with Ukraine's president and his family, discussing their ideas for improving medical care in Ukraine.

They said that the atmosphere for charity work in Ukraine will improve significantly under Mr. Yushchenko's leadership.

"Our relationship with the government is extremely open, welcoming and very positive, which is totally different from the past 10 years," Dr. Matkiwsky said.

In the next several weeks, the Matkiwskys will conduct several meetings with Health Minister Mykola Polischuk to discuss implementing their potential projects, Dr. Matkiwsky said.

CCRF sold 360 VIP tickets for $150 each, Ms. Matkiwsky said. Thousands bought general admission tickets for $15 each. Kyiv Children's Clinical Hospital No. 2 and Dnipropetrovsk Children's Clinical Hospital No. 2 will each receive high-quality neonatal intensive care equipment thanks to the concert.

Ruslana's performance was replete with visual spectacles. Fountains in front of the stage shot water into the air in synchronization with the music. Flames burst into the air, and fireworks sprayed the air in front of the two-tiered stage where dancers awed the crowd and musicians played instruments such as Hutsul trembity, kettle drums and modern, electronic keyboards.

"I never have seen this type of a show in Ukraine," said Myroslav Nykolaev, the managing director of the Dzherelo center in Lviv, who attended the concert with his wife and disabled daughter, Marta, who befriended Ruslana six years ago.

"This is a good example for other artists that something on this level can take place in Ukraine," he added.

Ruslana has been actively raising money for the Dzherelo Center in Lviv since 1999, long before she became famous, Mr. Nykolaev said, adding that the singer typically takes the initiative of setting up charity concerts.

"She calls us and says, 'You know, there's a chance coming up to host a concert,' " Mr. Nykolaev said. "She has always remembered us."

Ruslana and her dancers changed costumes at least half a dozen times, wearing outfits that ranged from white sharavary to tight black leather pants and mini-skirts. She performed the entire "Wild Dances" album, singing about half the songs in English and the other half in Ukrainian.

After the concert, Ruslana stood in front of a large screen with the blue-and-yellow flag and received flowers from the president and Kyiv's mayor, Oleksander Omelchenko, who was in attendance throughout the entire concert. As a show of appreciation, Ruslana shouted out her trademark, "Heyyyy!" drawing loud applause from the audience.

Mrs. Matkiwsky came on stage to thank Ruslana, and then presented a film to the audience that showed scenes of the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund's work.

"I was touched and I even felt that this concert was for me," said concert-goer Nadia Paraschak, whose husband, Roman, received orders to work in the 30-kilometer Chornobyl zone for two months one year after the accident.

He died of cancer several years later at age 39.

Also attending the concert were Vice Minister of Humanitarian Affairs Mykola Tomenko and Minister of Culture Oksana Bilozir, who danced to Ruslana's music alongside Gryndzholy, the young musicians from Ivano-Frankivsk representing Ukraine in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

Prior to Ruslana's performance, Gryndzholy performed their revised version of "Razom Nas Bahato," consisting of lyrics in English and a rewritten chorus in Ukrainian, without the political references.

CCRF has worked in Ukraine for 15 years, delivering more than $52 million in hospital supplies and medical equipment.

The Ruslana concert wasn't the first time CCRF held a fund-raising concert in Ukraine, Dr. Matkiwsky said. For Chornobyl's 10-year anniversary in 1996, the fund hosted a Presidential Concert at the Kyiv Opera Theater featuring performers from all over Europe.

However, government officials demanded half the seats in the theater, thereby sharply limiting the number of tickets that CCRF could sell in order to raise money, Dr. Matkiwsky said.

"This time was different," he said. "A lot of people came, bought tickets and had a good time."

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