Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
UNWLA 100
Publications
FAQ
Annual Report 2023
Annual Report 2022
Annual Report 2021
Initiatives
Advocate
Educate
Cultivate
Care
News
Newsletters
Sign Up For Our Newsletter
Join UNWLA
Become a Member
Volunteer With Us
Donate to UNWLA
Members Portal
Calendar
Shop to Support Ukraine
Search for:
Print
Print Page
Download
Download Page
Download Right Page
Open
1
2-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10-11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18-19
20-21
22-23
24-25
26-27
28-29
30-31
32-33
34-35
36-37
38-39
40
20 WWW. UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2013 BETWEEN UKRAINE AND THE DIASPORA: An Interview with Iryna Klyuchkovska , Director of the International Institute of Education, Culture, and Liaisons with the Diaspora Pani Iryno, the International Institute of Education, Culture, and Liaisons with the Diaspora at the National Polytechnic Un i- versity in L'viv has recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. As the Institute's Dire c- tor , could you briefly describe its history to our readers? The International Institute of Education, Culture, and Liaisons with the Diaspora is almost the same age as the independent Ukrainian State. The I n- stitute was founded by Iryna Kalynets — a noted public intellectual, writer, and member of the first democratic Ukrainian parliament. In the early years of Ukraine's renewed independence, the insistence of Ms. Kalynets that cooperation b e- tween the Ukrainian State and the diaspora was very important revealed her long - term thinking and deep understanding of state matters. Unfo r- tunately, to this day many Ukrainians think of the diaspora as wealthy individuals who occasional ly come to visit and help their relatives financially. The average Ukrainian knows almost nothing about the activities of Ukrainian communities abroad. When we polled the residents of L'viv on this issue, we were astonished to discover that this stereotype persists even in Halychyna — despite the fact that many people have immigra t- ed and continue to immigrate from this region. That is why one of the Institute's objectives is to make the Ukrainian diaspora around the world known to Ukraine. I became Director of the Institute in 2004, but the work for me began in earnest after the O r- ange Revolution. Unexpectedly, my colleagues and I found ourselves faced with serious challen g- es. First of all, for years we have had to continua l- ly present the argument to the sta te authorities that cooperation with Ukrainians around the world is necessary. Countries with large diasporas such as the Russian Federation, Poland, Armenia, and China have made the support of their co m- patriots abroad a vital part of their foreign policy and invest financially into the development of this relationship. By contrast, we must spend much of our time and effort simply justifying the i m- portance of our Institute to various state agencies. Our second challenge, which was even less e x- pected, stems from the fact that Ukrainians abroad have become disappointed with the course of the Ukrainian state development and lost their trust towards us. Therefore, we directed a lot of our efforts at the goal of regaining this trust among the Ukrainian diaspora. By and large, I think we have managed to overcome this pro b- lem, and our cooperation with the diaspora's lea d- ing organizations, such as the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), the European Congress of Ukrainians, and the World Federation of Ukrain i- an Women's Or ganizations (WFUWO), is powe r- ful testimony to this fact. We have had the honor of assisting both the UWC and the WFUWO in the organization of their annual meetings, held here, at the L'viv Polytechnic University. In the su m- mer, we will also host the 10th U WC Congress and the WFUWO Annual Meeting. What is the Institute's structure and its main projects? From the very beginning, we wanted our proje cts to respond to real, existing needs. Our b i - a nnual I nternatio nal Congress , the general theme of which is " Diaspora as an Establishing Factor of the Ukrainian State in the International Comm u- nity, " has helped us tremendously in determining these needs. Both scholars and people who work in the Ukrainian communities abroad come to this Congress, and it is with t heir help that we learned about a large spectrum of problems that need our attention and were able to set our prior i- ties. We work predominantly with those who find themselves in greatest difficulty — Ukrainians of the Eastern diaspora, including Russia, and the most recent emigrants. The first area of our work — the project "A Step towards Ukraine" — deals with the organiz a- tion of summer schools, design of educational m a terials in the Ukrainian language, and provi d- ing assistance to educational institutions. A t eam of young and talented people from the Institute's Ukrainian Studies and Education Department developed textbooks of Ukrainian as a foreign language, based on the European guidelines for foreign language instruction. We learned about the need for such t extbooks from the participants of our Congress. The Ukrainian Studies Depar t- ment also sets up courses of Ukrainian and orga n- izes the annual conference "The Ukrainian La n- guage in the World." The second area is our work on the pro b- lems of recent labor migra tion, such as the neg a-
Page load link
Go to Top
1 
2-3 
4-5 
6-7 
8-9 
10-11 
12-13 
14-15 
16-17 
18-19 
20-21 
22-23 
24-25 
26-27 
28-29 
30-31 
32-33 
34-35 
36-37 
38-39 
40 
