We are proud to receive and share this letter of appreciation with all soyuzianky and UNWLA donors who have generously supported the Babusi Fund. Your donations directly aid women who endured unimaginable hardships inflicted by the ruthless Soviet regime when they were innocent children—uprooted and sent to labor camps simply because their family members believed in an independent Ukraine. These were russian crimes against Ukrainian children in the past, and tragically, they echo today as russia attempts to repeat such atrocities against Ukrainian children in the present.
Established over 60 years ago to support women released from Soviet labor camps, the Babusi Fund now provides modest yet meaningful financial aid to elderly women living alone, helping ensure they can afford medicine and basic necessities.
In the photograph: Nadiia, born in 1935, who was deported with her mother in 1946 to the Kemerovo region for special settlement due to her older sister Olha’s involvement in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
Oleksandra, born in 1932, was deported with her family to the steppes of Kazakhstan in 1940 because of her father, a political prisoner of the Lutsk prison, who was executed by the Soviet regime on June 23, 1941.
In the photograph: Halyna, born in 1941, who was deported with her mother in 1945 to the Krasnoyarsk region because her father was a political prisoner. Her mother, Mrs. Raisa, worked with lumberjacks in the logging camps.
Yevheniia, born in 1932, who, along with her entire family, was deported in 1949 to the Khabarovsk region due to the involvement of family members in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).
In the photograph: Kateryna, born in 1936, daughter of political prisoner, a local leader of the OUN-UPA who organized a hospital for UPA soldiers in his village of Zavydiv, in the Horokhiv region. As a child, Mrs. Kateryna helped gather medicinal herbs, prepare ointments, and treat bandaging materials.
In the photograph: Yaroslava, born in 1931, who was deported with her family in 1947 to the Kemerovo region due to her father, who was the OUN-UPA leader (stanychnyi) of the village of Kolodzhi.
Please read the original letter in Ukrainian, and translation to English below.
