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16 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ТРАВЕНЬ 2016 I immediately agreed to accept this opportunity and worked with him to develop my research plan and proposal for the University Fellowships Committee. What was your personal interest in getting this grant? I wanted to travel to Ukraine and see my family. I also wanted to work on a project where I could show people in America a different side of Ukraine—not merely as a war torn country with a destabilized government, failed state—but as a country with a difficult history, a country that also has an active civil society populated by individu- als willing to cooperate to help others and work to improve their own situation. What was your specific assignment for this study grant? Part of the grant application is to submit a pro- posal for research, so the “assignment” is more or less self-selected, pending approval from grant administrators. My proposal for the research pro- ject was twofold: 1. To interview representatives of the UN, federal and local government, and NGO/volunteer organ- izations to gauge their relative contributions to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, and 2. To volunteer as a teacher at the English Sum- mer School organized by the Ukrainian Catholic University. One unanticipated benefit of the grant was that I had the opportunity to meet and to in- terview Member of Parliament (MP) Hanna Hopko (Head of Committee on Foreign Affairs). MP Hopko is also involved in many internal pro- jects, including enacting reforms for increased tobacco control featuring a smoking ban in all public indoor areas, medical reforms that will in- crease public access to medicine, judicial reforms that will allow for the review of contested deci- sions, and others similar reforms. She belongs to a new generation of politicians not mentally or physically connected with the illicit post-Soviet approaches to representative work. I was also privileged to work closely with her team; a s one of my first tasks, she requested that I prepare a report describing foreign affairs committees in the parliaments of different countries, comparing them to the work and protocol of the Ukrainian committee as a tool to improve the efficacy and organization her Parliamentary committee. The experience was overwhelmingly positive and re- vealed for me the great amount of progress made in Ukrainian government. Every member of MP Hopko’s staff was incredibly friendly and welcom- ing. For the duration of my stay we communicat- ed exclusively in English to improve their English, a critical skill in the field of foreign affairs. Member of Parliament (MP) Hanna Hopko (left) and Sofia Soroka What was most exciting about your work? It probably sounds juvenile, but it was exciting to meet important people—heads of organizations, leaders in government—and have them speak to me as an equal and as a researcher or representa- tive of the diaspora. On the other hand, they were probably very confused (at least at first) about who I was and what I was doing there—just imag- ine, a random American student asking you for an interview out of the blue on your involvement with the humanitarian crisis. I sometimes felt there was apprehension as to my motives, and some of the political leaders responded in very politically correct terms, wary of revealing some of their struggles and shortcomings. What were you expecting when you went to Ukraine? Were your expectations accurate? I had known beforehand of the immense role of volunteer groups and citizens themselves helping Internally Displaced People (IDPs), especially be- cause a significant number of IDPs found housing with ordinary people instead of at public shelters, etc.). In this sense my expectations were accurate. I had not realized; however, how organized the volunteer groups were and how they were able to resolve everything from physical needs to social issues of regional mistrust with such limited re- sources and experience. For example, the center for volunteers organized outings and sports events, typically soccer games, between families of IDPs and those who had members fighting in ATO).
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