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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЧЕРВЕНЬ 2016 WWW.UNWLA.ORG 11 During the Easter season the UNWLA en- gaged in its charitable aid program for “Babusi” in the Lviv oblast and also donated medical supplies to the military hospital in Zhytomyr. As a result of our organization’s initiative, 50 babusi (members of the Society of Political Prisoners and Oppressed Persons” of the city of Novosibirsk and surround- ing villages. Not long ago, we received a heart- warming letter of thanks from the society’s presi- dent, Iryna Stankevych. We share excerpts of this letter with our readers: “Your warm and sympathetic Easter greet- ing and material help strengthen our faith by un- derscoring that we did not sacrifice our childhood, our youth, our lives on the altar of our struggle for the dream of a free Ukraine. It was thus that my brothers and sisters in the distant, severe camps of Kolyma and Mahadan, in the freezing, savage Si- berian barracks, preserved their native tongue, honoring the culture and customs of their native land. It was the winds of the Bolshevik empire that blew them there, covering them with the cor- rosive sand and dust of the savage steppes of Ka- zakhstan, starving them to death, oppressing them, chaining them in the icy shackles of Kolyma and Mahadan, and burying them in the mines of Pechora, Vorkuta, Inta. . . . And this applies to all of us—it is a small sliver of the living history of our freedom-loving, unbowed and unbroken nation . . . Dear diaspora Ukrainians, we thank you for your sensitive, unselfish hearts, which radiate into the depths of the souls of the needy; for your hearts that do not heed the voice clamoring in the wind but rather heed the truth that has endured in the soul and teaches the soul.” On May 13, UNWLA Social Welfare Chair Lidia Bilous visited Zhytomyr’s military hospital and, in the name of the UNWLA, presented the hospital with a hematologic and biochemical ana- lyzer along with two binocular microscopes (total value of donated goods $22,000 US). In addition to supporting the ongoing work of our organization with the “Babusi” program and the Zhytomyr Military Hospital, our members at- tended several important events here in the United States. The first of these was the celebration of the 40 th anniversary of the founding and opening by the UNWLA of The Ukrainian Museum (UM) in New York City. Approximately 200 people gath- ered on April 17 at the Tavern on the Green in Cen- tral Park to celebrate this anniversary. President of the Board of Trustees, Prof. Renata Holod, wel- comed all guests (including Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ambassador of Ukraine to the United Nations; Consul General of Ukraine Ihor Sybiga; CEO of SelfReliance NY Federal Credit Union Bohdan Kurczak; Chairman of the SelfReliance Board Ste- pan Kaczaraj; and Treasurer of the Ukrainian Na- tional Association Roma Lisovich) and thanked past UNWLA presidents, donors, sponsors, and all members of the UM. She marveled at the mu- seum’s accomplishments, praising its small but dedicated staff. During my brief remarks as current UN- WLA president, I reminisced about the UM’s hum- ble beginnings: how its original holdings, which consisted of 600 artifacts, were purchased by the UNWLA from the Ukrainian Folk Art Cooperative in Lviv in 1933 for $2,225 and were shipped to the United States to be featured at the folk art exhibit at the Ukrainian Pavilion at the Chicago World’s Fair. And it was these artifacts, protected and pre- served with love by the UNWLA, that became the backbone of the UM when it opened in 1976. As noted in the catalogue of the last exhibit of these treasured pieces, an exhibit entitled “Thread to the Past” was held in the new and modern museum in 2007; its curator, Luba Wolynetz, stated that “By today’s standards, the purchase made in 1933 was a modest investment; by ANY standards, it yielded an incredibly rich harvest!” It was during this very upbeat gathering that the UNWLA gifted the UM $4,000 and also became a member of the museum’s 400K Club (a designation for members who donate $1,000 per year for four years). In its May 1, 2016, report of this momentous event, The Ukrainian Weekly noted, “They came to honor an institution that has served not only the Ukrainian community, but the arts community at large, with its high-quality and expansive exhibits and collections.” Well said! On April 26, the United Nations General Assembly held a commemorative meeting to mark the 30th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear dis- aster. Although 30 years have passed since this ca- tastrophe, the areas affected by Chornobyl are still struggling to overcome poverty and stigma. H.E. Mogens Lykketoftl, President of the 70 th session of the General Assembly, stated that “. . . we must continue to demonstrate international solidarity so that those most affected by this accident will be able to recover to the fullest.”
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