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CHORNOBYL: SEEDS OF HOPE by CHRYSTIA SONEVYTSKY International Coordinator Global ReLeaf AMERICAN FORESTS Last Year the world remembered. It was the 10th anniversary since the tragedy at Chornobyl. Much was written on the subject: conferences were con vened, scientific symposia were held, resolutions were passed, memorial church services were conducted and concerts in commemoration were commissioned. The 10th anniversary was also marked by the plant ing of a 314 acre Global ReLeaf forest in Florida, dedicated to the victims of Chornobyl. On the other side of the Atlantic, the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine, organized tree planting actions involving youth and citizens in several areas of Ukraine in order to restore some of the green canopy that these people left behind when they were forced to leave their native “polyssia”. At the inauguration last March, Dr. Yaroslav Voitko the first secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC delivered a message from Dr. Yuri Shcherbak, Ukraine’s ambassador stating: “Today’s Chornobyl Memorial Forest Inauguration gives a hope for the future to those who survived this horrible dis aster, and a promise that by our joint efforts we can make this world a better place to live.” Vice President Al Gore also sent his acknowledgement in recogni tion of this initiative. The Chornobyl Memorial Forest project has been undertaken by AMERICAN FORESTS, the nation’s oldest conservation organization whose history goes back to 1875. Almost immediately after Ukraine pro claimed its independence, AMERICAN FORESTS ex tended its hand to a newly emerging nongovernmen tal environmental organization in Ukraine, the Na tional Ecological Centre of Ukraine to become a Global ReLeaf partner. This fruitful cooperation has resulted in several successful undertakings. It was the idea of the Chornobyl Committee of Washington, DC to plant trees on this the 10th anni versary of Chornobyl, that got the campaign off the ground. The Chornobyl Memorial Forest project was created in partnership with the St. Johns River Water Management District in Florida. The Chornobyl Com mittee of Washington DC assumed the costs involved in the printing of the “Seeds of Hope” notecards by the late Jacques Hnizdovsky. It was the sale of these notecards that resulted in contributions that could be dedicated towards the planting of trees both here and in Ukraine. Contributions from the sale of these notecards will also support the yet to be published “Album of Memories” that is being coordinated by the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine. An appeal to involve US communities in the commemoration of Chornobyl’s tragic anniversary by the “simple act of planting a tree” was heard by some of the Ukrainian-American Sister Cities. As a result trees were planted in some of these towns in the US. The town of Kent in Washington State planted a tree 18 ’’НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 1997 Tree planting activities coordinated by the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine in the Carpathian mountains. Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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