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OUR LIFE LEST WE FORGET - A TRIBUTE TO DR. TEODOZIA SAWYCKYJ by ANNA KRAWCZUK Maria Teodozia was born in the village of Lezhahiv Ukraine on June 1, 1917, into the large family of Rev. Ivan and Maria Tuna Klufas. She graduatedfrom Lviv's Ridna Shkola in 1936 and enrolled in Lviv University as a law student. Her studies at Lviv University were interrupted by the turmoil of World War II. In 1949, with her husband Zinowij and two small children, Jurij and Handzia, she emigrated from a displaced persons camp in Germany to Utica, New York. Ambitious and determined "Dozia" completed her studies in 1969 at the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany, with a PhD. in political economy and international law. Employed by the Oneida County Social Services, Dr. Sawyckyj was a social worker, retiring in 1981. She also studied and lectured at Utica College and, because of her great appreciation for art, studied at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, gaining an insight into pottery and ceramics. She loved Ukrainian arts and crafts and was a specialist in Ukrainian Easter egg (pysanky) writing, an art she passed on to younger Ukrainian Americans. She and her family generously supported the Ukrainian Museum in New York, believing in its cultural importance. A historian at heart, she collected oral histories about the Ukrainian independence movement in the 1920’s and 1930's, chronicled her family's 100 year history, and wrote many articles. In the last years of her life, she produced and co-edited a book about the "Ridna Shkola” in Lviv which was published shortly before she passed away. Her ideals and love for Ukraine were passed on to her children and grandchildren. A realist, she accepted the diagnosis of terminal cancer with courage, grace and a love of God. Surrounded by the warmth offamily love and devotion, she crossed over on May 9, 1998 and was buried at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery, in South Bound Brook, NJ. The ranks of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, Inc., were enriched, when, in 1949, Dr. Teodozia Sawyckyj became a member of UNWLA Branch 57 in Utica, NY. Newly arrived in the USA and determined to raise and educate her children, Dr. Sawyckyj also devoted her time to activities of our organization, both in Branch 57 and in the Regional Council. At the XVIth UNWLA Convention, Dr. Sawyckyj was elected to the National Board as Social Welfare Chair. She understood that keeping Ukraine's name alive during the years of the Soviet regime and enslavement was a huge task that fell on Ukrainians in the diaspora. This could be accomplished only through education. Since 1967, the work of the UNWLA Social Welfare chair included sending minimal aid to Ukrainian students in Brazil and some covert assistance to Poland. Aid to students in Ukraine was impossible. The program had to be coordinated, centralized and funded and Dr. Teodozia Sawyckyj made herself responsible for this huge undertaking and founded the UNWLA Scholarship/Student Sponsorship Program. Writing countless articles, she appealed to Ukrainian people of good will in the USA, Canada and Australia for support. UNWLA Branches, various organization and individuals responded and became sponsors of students of Ukrainian descent in Brazil. A 1975 trip to Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay with daughter Handzia strengthened Dr. Sawyckyj's determination to give underprivileged students of Ukrainian descent the opportunity to achieve higher education in their adoptive countries. As citizens, proud of their Ukrainian heritage, they would continue to protect their ethnicity and the country of their ancestors. Dr. Sawyckyj realized that one of the most important requirements for scholarship recipients was learning the Ukrainian language, the unifying force of Ukrainians in the diaspora. Her vision was rewarded 30 years later when Editor: TAMARA STADNYCHENKO 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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