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education and health issues in general are not being addressed with priority. A s members o f Soyuz Ukrainok w e should be committed to sharing what w e can and to joining hands to help our sisters in Ukraine. For if w e better the life o f the wom an in Ukraine, w e w ill be improving her children’ s lives, the life o f her fam ily, and the life o f the society in which they live. “ The W orld o f the 2 1 st Century W om an” conference will serve as a kick o ff and promotion o f a new ly proposed pilot project - the “ W om en’ s Health Fund.” Our current Environmental/ Health Issues Chairperson, Martha Jarosewich, will be working with members o f Soyuz Ukrainok in Ukraine to form a network o f doctors who will make them selves available to address health education o f the wom en o f Ukraine. W e are very excited by this col laborative effort since this is the first time that the U N W L A w ill be directly addressing the support o f the health needs o f the Ukrainian wom an. This giant step is goal number #2 o f the conference, one which can also be achieved as w e share our respect for each other as accomplished wom en and join hands as w e try to make a difference. W e are also pleased to report that the confer ence has already inspired interest and support. W hen w e discussed our goals with various successful wom en, each and every one o f them voiced her enthu siasm that the dual motivation for the conference is inspiring. Melanne Verveer, the Chair o f Vital Voices Global Partnership, former assistant to Hillary Clinton, and a member o f U N W L A , expressed her support and a sincere regret that she w ill not be able to attend be cause o f previous commitments. Irene Zabytko, author o f The Sky Unwashed and When Luba Leaves Home w ill be present to lend her support for the U N W L A and for our new campaign. Luba G oy, renowned C a nadian comedienne and advocate o f wom en’s health issues in Ukraine, w ill also be attending to voice her support for the campaign. Our president, Iryna K u row yckyj, w ill be hosting a session addressing the status o f our organization and what we can do to meet both goals o f the conference in the future. W e have caught the ear o f successful, accomplished wom en o f Ukrainian descent - let us m ove forward on this path. Please look for further details in our local press and U N W L A website. Marianna Zajac President, Central N Y Regional Council Conference Chairperson An Interview with Irene Zabytko The first time that Irere Zabytko and I met was on April 26, 2000 at Seton H all University, in South. Orange, New Jer sey, where the author was giving a reading from her newly published book The Sky Unwashed. The date was significant be cause it was the 14th anniversary o f the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. For me this date had a personal significance as well. In 1994, Lydia Czernyk (UNWLA Welfare Chair 1984-1999), Dr. Chrystia Slywotzky and I visited the village o f Opachichi, lo cated in the Chornobyl zone, which was the focus in the book. Lydia Czernyk had previously visited the village in 1990 at which time she met the people (mostly women) that had returned to their native village. One o f the results o f her visit to Opachichi was a UNWLA commitment to provide assistance to these villagers, a commitment that has continued to this day. (For reports o f our 1994 visit to the area, see June 1994 and September 1994 issues o f Our Life). An article by M arta Kolom ayets about these events and about the UNWLA's connection to the village residents was published in The Ukrainian Weekly, and this article inspired Irene Zabytko to write her novel about the aftermath, survival and the silent, invisible victims. M y second meeting with Irene Zabytko occurred in Apopka, Florida, where the author currently resides. It was during this meeting, held over the Thanksgiving holidays in 2002, that Ms. Zabytko graciously agreed to allow me to interview her fo r Our Life and I am pleased to share the results with you in this issue. - Anna Krawczuk A K : W e first met in the year 2000. W hat have you written since that time? I Z : M y next book will be out in April 20 0 3, a collec tion o f short stories based on m y Ukrainian Chicago neighborhood where I grew up, and it's called When Luba Leaves Home. A K : I know from our first meeting at Seton Hall U ni versity that your idea for writing The Sky Unwashed came from an article by Marta Kolom ayets in The Ukrainian Weekly. Can you tell me more about that? IZ : A t that time I was writing the stories for m y sec ond book. I was in Taos, N ew M exico where I was a writer-in-residence at the Helene W urlitzer Founda tion. I was listening to an N P R (National Public Radio) documentary about the 5 th anniversary o f Chornobyl, and it was about the same time that I was reading the article by Marta Kolom ayets about these old women - I guess there were men as w ell - who returned to the village o f Opachichi, in the exclusion zone. After they were evacuated, no one took care o f them and they had no place else to go, so they decided to return home. I thought that w as very interesting. So, after listening to 16 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2003 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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