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Spring 2002 Newsletter
Table of Contents:
1. Letter from
the President
2. Meet the UUARC Staff
3. Donations in Memoriam
4. Credit Unions Help Boarding
Schools... One at a time
5. Continuing Programs
6. Assistance Committee
7. Information Bureau
8. Friends of UUARC and Volunteers
9. Adopt-a-Grandparent
1. Letter from the
President
Dear Contributors,
Thank
you for your generosity throughout the years.
With this Newsletter we would like to inform you
about some of the projects and activities your
contributions have made possible. I would like
to draw your attention to the variety of
programs funded by UUARC, as well as the fact
that 92% of donated funds are used to fund
programs -- only 8% goes towards administration.
Let us hope for a more prosperous future for
Ukraine, one in which the Ukrainian national
identity has been rekindled and the Ukrainian
language is the language of the government and
its people.
Larissa Kyj
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2. Meet the UUARC Staff
AT HEADQUARTERS
Stefan Hawrysz - Executive Director
Oksana Horajeckyj - Office Support
(part-time)
Lydia Melnyk - Administrative Liaison
(part-time)
Roman Iwaskiw - Technical Support (part-time)
IN UKRAINE Vira Prynko - Director of
Kyiv Office: Implements our programs from Kyiv
Dr. Andrij Dyda - Director of Lviv Office
covers Western Ukraine
WORLDWIDE REPRESENTATIVES
S.Tkaciuk - Romania
A. Luzhnytsky - Switzerland
Stefan Balyckyj - Denmark
Rev. Peter Balzar - Brazil
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3. Donations in Memoriam
January - May
2002
| in memory of Roman Mackiw |
$60.00 |
| in memory of Stephanie
Buchnyckyj |
$910.00 |
| in memory of Donna
Kalynewycz |
$500.00 |
| in memory of Jaroslawa
Rybak |
$15000.00 |
| in memory of Lew Leskiw |
$30.00 |
| (various) |
$2700.00 |
| Wascienko Fund |
$1000.00 |
| In lieu of gifts for
Askold Lozynskyj’s 50th Birthday |
$800.00 |
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4. Credit Unions Help
Boarding Schools... One at a time
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5. Continuing Programs
Soup Kitchen in Lviv feeds
homeless, elderly and infirm five days a week.
Children’s Camps - UUARC sends 300+
children to summer camps throughout Ukraine, and
also supports Ukrainian youth camps in the US.
Orphanages and boarding schools throughout
Ukraine receive donations of clothing and
personal items, computers and bicycles.
Children from Orpahnges - visit other parts
of Ukraine for the Christmas and Easter Holidays
in a cultural exchange program.
"Nadia" - the thrift store opened
in Lviv during the 1993-1996 Grant is still
self-sustaining, selling donated clothing and
products made by special-needs children trained
in the woodworking and sewing shops. The other
12 woodworking and sewing shops established in
other boarding schools in the Lviv oblast are
still functioning, training children in
vocations which allow them to be self-sufficient
adults.
Bicyclist Steven Vetterlein of Plymouth
Meeting was so touched by a television program
about the plight of children affected by the
Chornobyl nuclear disaster, that he has been
raising money and collecting bicycles to help
these children suffering from various cancers
and radiation poisoning. An article in the
"Philadelphia Inquirer" appeared about
his mission along with a call for help through
UUARC.
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6. Assistance Committee
UUARC’s Assistance Committee has received and
processed over 200 requests for assistance since
January 2002. Many requests come for specific
medical supplies or equipment, such as
wheelchairs, prostheses, crutches and glasses.
The requests are reviewed and granted when
possible, and hundreds of parcels of clothing,
shoes and other necessities are packed by our
volunteers and sent to our offices in Ukraine
for distribution.
The following are examples of granted
requests:
$250 - an elderly writer from
Ivano-Frankivsk oblast to augment her 72 hryvna/mo.
pension
$200 - a family from Luhanshchyna who
lost everything in a house-fire
$100 - for medicine for an elderly
invalid of the II group to augment her 73 hr/mo
pension
$500 - for medicine for a man who suffers
from a terrible skin disease "Brokka"
$500 - for the library of University of
Lviv Stavropihion
$5,000 - Association of Ukrainians in
Romania
$1,500 - Wascienko Foundation in Belgium
$300 - for a one-year-old child suffering
from bronchopneumonia in both lungs
$200 - for two elderly invalids from
Crimea
$5,000 - for repairs of the sanitation
system of a boarding school in Rivenska obl.
Notes to our Donors and Benefactors:
We are extremely grateful for the incredibly
generous donations of clothing and footwear we
have been receiving! Unfortunately, not all of
it is in sufficiently good condition to send to
Ukraine. We ask that donations be clean and in
very good condition. We would also ask for
donations other than clothing, such as soap,
shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash,
notebooks, writing paper, pens and pencils,
chalk, crayons, and blankets, sheets and
pillowcases. These are things that are
desperately needed in the orphanages and
schools.
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7. Information Bureau
UUARC’s Information Bureau was established in
1997 to help newly arrived immigrants from
Ukraine adjust to life in the US. In general,
questions regarding daily life, legal issues and
citizenship are addressed. Since its inception
700 have attended open house, group
question/answer sessions with attorneys, and 45
have successfully completed the Citizenship
Training Classes taught by Metodij Boretsky, the
head of the Information Bureau. Attorney George
Farion and Mr. Boretsky (assisted by Vera
Andreychyk) are available on the second and
fourth Saturday of the month from 9:00 AM to
12:00 noon for assistance in an open house
forum. Appointments are not necessary, walk-ins
are welcome. Various programs are planned to
assist our newly arrived fellow Ukrainians in
the future.
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8. Friends of UUARC and
Volunteers
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9. Adopt-a-Grandparent
The Adopt-a-Grandparent Project initiated three
years ago is one of our most gratifying
programs. A $15 monthly payment is donated by a
sponsor and distributed to an elderly or ill
senior citizen (many of whom suffered
persecution by the Soviet Regime) who has no
resources to augment a meager pension. The
letters of thanks are extremely sincere!
Recipients are referred by churches and other
social organizations, and each recipient is
personally investigated by our offices in
Ukraine. To date we have 90 sponsors and 128
Grandparents. We encourage families, groups and
even classrooms to reach out and ease an elderly
person’s plight. Many of our sponsors
correspond with their Grandparents and
experience their joy and gratitude directly.
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