Skip to content
Call Us Today! 212-533-4646 | MON-FRI 12PM - 4PM (EST)
DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
Search for:
About Us
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
16 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ-СЕРПЕНЬ 2014 Daily Highlights from the XXX UNWLA Convention by Olesia Wallo Friday, May 23, 2o14 For the delegates, the XXX UNWLA Con- vention began with a warm welcome offered by the convention’s registration committee, whose members handed each participant a name badge and a tote filled with convention materials and various goodies from the event’s sponsors. After settling in their comfortable rooms at the Westchester Marriott Hotel, the members of the outgoing UNWLA National Board convened for their final meeting while other delegates and guests continued to arrive and fill the hotel in Tarrytown, New York, with cheerful greetings and friendly chatter. During the four-day convention, our Soyuzianky made such an impression on the hotel staff that one of its members actually felt compelled to learn a few Ukrainian words. Imag- ine our surprise when in response to questions or requests, we heard him say “ Pryvit !”, “ Slava Ukraini !”, and even “ Slava zhinkam !”—all uttered with a smile and almost perfect Ukrainian pro- nunciation! The Friday afternoon seminar, which in- cluded informative presentations by several na- tional chairwomen of UNWLA standing commit- tees, demonstrated the effectiveness of the format changes introduced by the convention organizers: limiting the time of each presentation to ten minutes ensured that presenters focused only on the most significant and interesting aspects of their work and left plenty of time for discussion— and what a discussion it was! The functioning of the Ukrainian Museum and the UNWLA website, preservation of branch and Regional Council ar- chives, and the matter of educating our next gen- eration elicited a flurry of questions, comments, and suggestions from the audience. Soyuzianky of all ages were especially eager to share their expe- riences and opinions about the running of svit- lychky pre-schools—a task that has been made exceedingly difficult in the last decades due to an ever increasing number of government regula- tions about such institutions. Yet the vital role which svitlychky play in teaching our youngsters about their Ukrainian heritage makes this task highly worthwhile and necessary. The evening’s Pre-Convention Program focused on the Maidan and featured a panel of three distinguished women speakers, each ad- dressing a different aspect of what has become known as Ukraine’s Revolution of Dignity. Natalia Karbovska, President of the Ukrainian Women’s Fund and active Maidan participant, spoke of the stereotype popularized by the mass media that Maidan was almost exclusively men’s struggle. She dispelled this stereotype by describing a wide variety of roles which women had played in the Revolution of Dignity (doctors, lawyers, journal- ists, Automaidan activists, etc.) and presented a book recently published in Ukraine under the title Maidan – zhinocha sprava ( Maidan Is Women’s Work ). Marta Kolomayets, Director of the Ful- bright Program in Kyiv, Ukraine, and a native Chicagoan who has been living in Ukraine for twenty-three years, described how the Revolution of Dignity differed from Ukraine’s other recent large-scale protests (“Ukraine without Kuchma” campaign and the Orange Revolution); because it was primarily about values and not about a spe- cific politician, this revolution had a different en- ergy about it, leading many to believe that what they were witnessing was finally the true for- mation of the Ukrainian political nation. Ms. Ko- lomayets related to the audience a few of her per- sonal experiences on the Maidan. “Believe me, there is no greater high that singing ‘ Shche ne vmerla Ukraina ’ together with half a million peo- ple,” she said. At the same time, she shared that she had never experienced a greater sadness in her life than on the day when the coffins with the Maidan’s fallen heroes were carried past the weeping multitudes gathered on Kyiv’s Independ- ence Square... The final panelist was Halyna Teslyuk, a faculty member from the Ukrainian Catholic University in L’viv and Coordinator of the UNWLA’s recently established Lectureship in Women’s Studies at UCU. She spoke about UCU students’ and faculty’s involvement in the Mai- dan—from the early peaceful stage of the protests; to the most dangerous days when one of the snip- ers’ bullets killed a faculty member from UCU’s History Department; to UCU’s academic, civic, and social initiatives after the Maidan, aimed at sustaining and furthering the process of democra- tization and societal development set in motion by the Revolution of Dignity. After a lively ques- tion-and-answer exchange with the panelists, de- bates and conversations continued during the re- ception, and for some Soyuzianky (including my- self), late into the night.
Page load link
Go to Top