Category: Holodomor National Awareness Tour

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Study of Holodomor genocide in Ukraine to be included in Grade 10 Canadian history course

Today, November 28th, Minister Lecce announced that the Ontario government mandated the study of the 1932-33 Holodomor – a man-made famine orchestrated by the Soviet regime in Ukraine 90 years ago, to be included in Grade 10 Canadian history course beginning in September of 2025.

This is a momentous news for the Ukrainian Canadian community that lobbied tirelessly to make this brutal campaign of Joseph Stalin against Ukrainian identity and existence that claimed millions of lives, known. Canada was the first country in the world that in 2008 recognized Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians, and now, including Holodomor in the curriculum will ensure our youth learns about adverse consequences of extreme political ideologies like those of totalitarian communist regime, in the classroom.

“The rise of extremism, including Communism and Marxism, are direct threats to our democracy, social cohesion and values as Canadians,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “I am determined to strengthen education on our shared values, including by mandating learning about the horrors of state-sponsored persecution of Ukrainians in the Holodomor in Grade 10 Canadian History. This learning will help ensure students are never bystanders in the face of such horrors, understand the danger of totalitarianism and help safeguard fundamental Canadian values of freedom and democracy over communist extremism.”

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation is also deeply grateful to the Government of Ontario for reinforcing this learning by investing $400,000 to support the Holodomor National Awareness Tour and the Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC) that will enable the HMC to travel to schools across the province and engage students in grades 6 to 12 through the experiential learning directly linked to the Ontario curriculum.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation developed Holodomor National Awareness Tour in 2014 to foster education and bring awareness of the Holodomor to Canadians. To date, the Holodomor Mobile Classroom engaged over 70,000 people across Canada and had visited more than 500 schools.

The Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC). Image by: Tetiana Dodonova

The Holodomor Mobile Classroom is a unique learning environment that uses cutting-edge technology to fully immerse and assist students in learning about the Holodomor in a digital classroom on wheels.

The fusion of technologies and interactive content that was developed for this program, defines an entirely new way to conduct lessons allowing both the facilitator and students to actively engage with each other.

This year, the Holodomor Mobile Classroom traveled Eastern and Western Canada, and just last week, was in Ottawa to mark the 90th anniversary of Holodomor on the Parliament Hill. 

Image by: Tetiana Dodonova

We are very grateful to the Donors who made the travels of the Holodomor Mobile Classroom possible over the years and look forward to many more thanks to the support of the Government of Ontario!

Today’s announcement ensures that students will learn about the unknown chapter in Ukrainian history, and that they will continue to embrace and value democracy, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law that Canada holds in the highest regard.

Background

To learn more about the Holodomor National Awareness Tour (HNAT): https://holodomortour.ca/

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The Holodomor National Awareness Tour – Program of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation since 2014

Holodomor describes the 1932-1933 famine-genocide of Ukraine, where millions of Ukrainians were deliberately starved to death by the brutal policies imposed by the communist regime of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation developed the Holodomor National Awareness Tour (HNAT) program in 2014 to foster education and bring awareness of the Holodomor to Canadians.

The Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC), a state-of-the-art education center, helps educate Canadians of all ages on the tragic historic events of the Holodomor and is a key component of the HNAT program. To date, the HMC has visited 525 schools engaging over 43,400 students and educators and connected with over 24,675 people across Canada at 289 community events.

Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC)
Inside the Holodomor Mobile Classroom

The Holodomor Mobile Classroom is a unique learning environment that uses cutting-edge technology to fully immerse and assist students in learning about the Holodomor in a digital classroom on wheels.

The fusion of technologies and interactive content that was developed for this program, defines an entirely new way to conduct lessons allowing both the facilitator and students to actively engage with each other.

This year, the focus of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour is on eastern and western Canada as well as commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Holodomor.

The travels started out in the latter half of May visiting schools in New Brunswick which HNAT originally planned for the spring of 2020 before COVID shut everything down and as such was not completed.

After several very engaging days in New Brunswick, and a brief stop in Sydney, Nova Scotia where we took part in the Ukrainian Festival of Culture based at the Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church Parish Hall, we continued to Newfoundland, marking our first visit to the province. We spent ten days in Newfoundland visiting schools in Corner Brook and St. John’s where we received a very warm and positive reception from both students and staff at the schools visited.

Funding for the creation and implementation of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour was initially obtained through Federal and Provincial government grants, private sector sources, and individuals.

Funding, especially from Government sources, has evaporated in light of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine as governments and much of the private sector and individuals overwhelmingly focus their support to deal with the current humanitarian and military needs of Ukraine.

At the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, we have also redirected the majority of our efforts to alleviate the humanitarian damage of the illegal war caused by Russia. Nevertheless, we recognize that it would not be wise to lose some of the very important projects we have developed in an effort to forestall a repetition of the horrible lessons from history. That is why we are turning to you, to ensure that the Holodomor memory remains a relevant force in the 21st century.

We are appealing to you to help us raise sufficient funding to commemorate this 90th Anniversary of the Holodomor and to continue teaching Canadians about this genocide.

Support HNAT

Background

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation is a national charitable foundation established in 1995 at the 18th Ukrainian Canadian Congress to coordinate, develop, organize and deliver assistance projects by Canadians directed to Ukraine and other organizations in Canada. For more information: www.cufoundation.ca

To learn more about the Holodomor National Awareness Tour (HNAT): https://holodomortour.ca/

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Holodomor National Awareness Tour News

HOLODOMOR NATIONAL AWARENESS TOUR BUS TRAVEL ACROSS CANADA

Seven years ago, the Holodomor National Awareness Tour took flight in Canada creating awareness about the Holodomor teaching Canadians, young and old, on board its digitally interactive Holodomor Mobile Classroom.  From idea concept, to design, through build, to execution and the development of applications that run our on-board and on-line lessons, we have taken Holodomor awareness to a new level never envisioned before.  Teaching about the past to prevent the reoccurrence of tragic events such as the Holodomor genocide, is what our youth, our future leaders, need to know.  They need to understand that totalitarian regimes such as those of former USSR leader Joseph Stalin do not make for a utopian world, but a world of oppression, discrimination, hatred, and racism that do not have a place is our global society.  HNAT’s goal is just that – to teach about such events in a way that engages students and helps them understand that their voice matters in creating a just and civil society.

Through the course of our travels over the last 6 years we have:

  • travelled across Canada, from Victoria, BC to Sydney, NS and as far north as Slave Lake, AB engaging over 62,770 students and the public about the Holodomor, visiting over 460 Canadian schools, teaching 1,488 individual class lessons.
  • Had 40,032 students and educators take part in one of our 4 lessons including an online lesson for students developed during the COVID pandemic.
  • Attended 260 public events across Canada, engaging over 22,700 visitors with the Tour’s materials on the Holodomor.
  • The HMC and the developers of the interactive lessons, Forge Media + Design have won 3 prestigious awards: Golden A’ Design Award 2017 (Lake Como, Italy), Gold at the DSE (Digital Signage Expo) 2018 APEX Awards (Las Vegas, NV), and Gold at the Indigo Design Award 2018 (the Netherlands).
  • Produced 7 educational videos, and one award-winning documentary film on the Holodomor, which are used in classrooms and on the HMC while at community events.

Our work is not done.  There are many miles left to travel across Canada to ensure that every Canadian knows about the Holodomor genocide and the devastation it caused, not just in 1932-1933, but about the intergenerational trauma that continues today.  Your financial support for our project will ensure that the memory of all the victims of the Holodomor is never forgotten.

Вічная Пам’ять!

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Holodomor National Awareness Tour

Holodomor National Awareness Tour

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HNAT Cross Canada Spring Summer Tour

On March 31st 2019, the Holodomor National Awareness Tour (HNAT) began its coast to coast travels across Canada, with a visit to St. Nicholas Church in Victoria, British Columbia and the BC Legislature on April 1st. We were welcomed to the Legislative Assembly by the Hon. Bruce Ralston: “Today in the House are a number of Canadians of Ukrainian origin who are here to launch a Canada-wide initiative to raise the knowledge of and awareness of the Holodomor.  It is the death by starvation, literally translated from Ukrainian, of six million to ten million Ukrainians — the numbers vary because it was so horrible an experience, and records were very remote — in the winter of 1932 and 1933, unknown and kept secret in Stalin’s Russia, actually, until more or less the Iron Curtain fell in 1989.

The group here includes the executive director of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation [Holodomor National Awareness Tour], Roma Dzerowicz; the Ukrainian Canadian Congress Victoria branch chair, Robert Herchak; and fellow board members Anna Visnevka, Motria Koropecki and Andrei Fabrikov.  Would the House please make all of them welcome.”

The Holodomor Mobile Classroom (HMC) is a fully self contained, wheel chair accessible RV converted into a state-of-the-art interactive audio-visual classroom. It features a 24 foot video wall made up of twelve 4k television screens spanning the length of the interior with seating up to 31 people.

A major part of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour’s mandate is to spread awareness about the Holodomor through our interactive lessons which complement high-school curricula, while teaching students about diversity, inclusiveness, tolerance and human rights, instilling upon them the need to raise their voices out of silence.

During our Cross-Canada tour we visited 44 schools and presented 156 interactive lessons. In BC we visited schools in Victoria, Vancouver, Chilliwack; in Alberta: Medicine Hat, Bow Island, Ponoka, Edmonton, Bashaw, Sherwood Park; in Saskatchewan: Saskatoon, Kenaston, Quill Lake, Canora, Yorkton, Strasbourg, Middle Lake, Imperial; in Manitoba: Winnipeg; in Ontario: Thunder Bay, Sault Ste Marie, Sudbury, Cambridge and Toronto; and finally Halifax and Dartmouth in Nova Scotia.

HOLODOMOR MOBILE CLASSROOM
HNAT – From Coast to Coast

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News Holodomor National Awareness Tour

A new Module for the Holodomor National Awareness Tour

“A Genocide begins with the killing of one man; not for what he has done, but because of who he is.” – Koffi Annan, U.N Secretary-General 2001

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed not only how people interact with each other, but also how Holodomor awareness is brought to the public.  Although the HMC’s travels across Canada are currently on hold, we continue to spread awareness by strengthening our social media presence on Twitter and Facebook,  and turning to online virtual learning for students.

As classrooms around the globe are going virtual so have we, by creating a pre-recorded online high school module, “Introduction to the Holodomor:  A Virtual Lesson for Schools”.

This lesson is a primer on the concept of genocide, the history of the Holodomor, and offers a call-to-action for students to fight against hate and prejudice and to advocate for social justice in their communities.  Guided by a narrator, students explore primary and secondary sources, do a short quiz, and write a reflection piece exploring the steps they can take towards being active citizens, which their teacher receives.  We are reaching out to high school principals and teachers about this lesson, and have over 129 schools now signed up for the lesson.

We continue to have a strong presence on Facebook with over 2,450 followers averaging a 1.12% engagement rate, well above the average for non-profit organizations.  On Twitter (@HolodomorTour) we have over 800 followers, with a rate of 1.8%, and an “impressions” rate of 1.8 million views.  We develop organized posts about the Holodomor, other genocides and international human rights abuses.  Being inclusive of other atrocities not only widens the reach of the Holodomor genocide, but also lends support to others who have also suffered, and are currently experiencing, crimes against humanity.

2021 continues to be a year that has many global events taking the news forefront and we are extremely pleased with our direct school based and social media Holodomor awareness campaigns.  The Canada-Ukraine Foundation and the Holodomor National Awareness Tour gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation as well as that of the Federal Government and our many private sponsors, so that we can continue to carry this project further into the future. 

About the Ontario Trillium Foundation

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the Government of Ontario, and one of Canada’s largest granting foundations. With a budget of over $136 million, OTF awards grants to some 1,000 projects every year to build healthy and vibrant Ontario communities.

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Holodomor National Awareness Tour News

Holodomor National Awareness Tour Update

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has brought many changes to how organizations operate, and the Holodomor National Awareness Tour has seen its share of the change.  Being a hands-on entity where visiting schools and hosting community events is a vital component of our work, we had to adapt to a larger on-line presence during these unprecedented times while the Holodomor Mobile Classroom awaits the clearance to be on the road once again.

Even though our monthly social media themed posts have a strong following, we needed to create something larger.  One question often heard from students, teachers and the public is – “Why haven’t we heard about the Holodomor?”  This is where our global campaign to have the word “Holodomor” added to dictionaries started.  We created the “DeepTruth” (www.deeptruth.ca) campaign which used DeepFake technology to reveal the truth of former Soviet Leader Joseph’s Stalin role in the Holodomor, the goal being to have the word “Holodomor” added to English language dictionaries.  We launched a petition on Change.org (http://chng.it/tbB7LJNZt5) to have the word added into major-English language dictionaries and now have over 36,000 signatures from over 120 countries and counting.  We have reached out to several major English language dictionaries requesting them to add “Holodomor” into their dictionaries.

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Not being able to visit schools to engage students with our interactive lessons on board the Holodomor Mobile Classroom, we restructured our lessons so that they can be accessible to students on-line and still give students an introduction to the Holodomor.  We are finalizing one of our lessons and hope to have it available to students and teachers in the new year.  This element of on-line learning has added a further outreach to Holodomor awareness and education.

We look forward to once again being able to travel across Canada engaging students, teachers and Canadians about the Holodomor.  From everyone at the Holodomor National Awareness Tour we wish you all the best for the holidays, a Merry Christmas and a healthy 2021.