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Our Life | Наше життя March | Березень 2021 25 The UNWLA Babusi Fund is a long-established fund that supports elderly women in Ukraine. Donations are distributed based on reports from Soyuz Ukrainok of Ukraine and the All Ukrainian Society of Political Prisoners and Repressed in Ukraine such as the ones below: • Orysia Mikolayivna Teliayeva, born in 1928, member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, taken as a political prisoner in 1948 for 10 years. She buried her son in May 2018. Now lives alone. She lost her sight due to glaucoma and now needs assistance in day-to-day living. Orysia vehemently supported the building of a free Ukraine, and for her efforts she received an Order of Princess Olha medal from President Petro Poroshenko. • Kateryna Kostiantinivna Charena, born in 1937, repressed, was sent to a camp in Kazakhstan at the age of 4 with her seven brothers and sisters and labelled an enemy of the people. Her father perished in a gulag. She now receives a minimal pension and needs funds for medicine. • Yevhenia Semenivna Muntianu, born in 1937, repressed, sent to Tiumensk oblast in Siberia with her family in 1941. Her father was imprisoned for 10 years. The family returned to Ukraine in 1954. An invalid, living with cancer and hepatitis, she has no family and needs funds for medicine. It is situations like these that had me ask members in April 2020, in Our Life , to join me on the Social Welfare Committee to answer the questions I posited: Should we be reaching more elderly women in Ukraine? Are we providing enough for each recipient? Can we start an Adopt-a-Babusia program? The first question resounded with Branch 98. In the fall of 2020, Branch 98 members in Holmdel/Middletown, NJ, decided to forego their Christmas party and hold a letter drive asking members and friends to provide donations for the Babusi Fund. Nadia Jaworiw, President of the branch, and Halyna Lojko, Vice President, wrote to their members: “Christmas is Two UNWLA Branches Support Babusi Fund traditionally a time for our Branch to reach out with support and love to our struggling ‘Babusi’ in Ukraine. In the past, we have directed all the proceeds from our annual Christmas Fundraiser to the Babusi Fund. This year, because of Covid-19, we are conducting a direct appeal for your generous support.” The response was indeed generous; the amount raised – $4,200 – was greater than the branch had raised in previous years. Dr. Mariya Furtak, our liaison in Lviv, was overwhelmed with the result, and plans were made to distribute the funds in Ivano- Frankivsk, as earlier collections had been distributed in other regions. Nadia Jaworiw was interested in what the funds would buy. I asked Dr. Furtak what each gift, usually 400-650 hryvni , would allow an individual to purchase. According to Dr. Furtak, it could pay for one-third of a month’s rent, or a bountiful table laden with traditional Ukrainian Christmas dishes. While increasing the amount of the gift would benefit the Oka Hrycak , Chair, UNWLA Social Welfare Committee Maria Bilous greeting Hanna Zahaliuk on her 95th birthday at a Babusi Fund gathering in Ternopil
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