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News

A Message from the President and CEO of CUF

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Canada Ukraine Foundation,

As we approach the holiday season, it is my pleasure to give a brief update from the Canada Ukraine Foundation. It is my hope this update will remind you of the important role CUF plays in the Ukrainian Canadian community and overall supporting much needed projects and programs in Ukraine, give you a glimpse into how CUF is evolving, and motivate you to consider supporting CUF’s continued work by making a donation today.

New faces on the CUF Board and Leadership Team

A year ago, CUF’s board evolved and brought in several new faces, and I am delighted have assumed the role of President partway through this year, at the AGM in June.

I have had the pleasure to work with many of you in the past. Some of our paths may have crossed as far back as my time with the Ukrainian Students’ Club at U of T more than 20 years ago now, or in various performing and leadership roles at the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus of North America for over 3 decades. More recently, perhaps we collaborated during my time leading the committee in support of Ukrainian Schools at UCC Toronto and helping coordinate this key stakeholder group for UCC National over the past 5 years. I have also had the privilege of serving on the Board of Directors of the Shevchenko Foundation over the past 5 years, contributing to the governance and nominating committee’s accomplishments, as well as supporting important projects including: MITACS, The Tryzub Awards, and the REACH program.

I am excited about my new role with the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and am honoured to help lead the organization over the next several years as President. One of my early tasks in this role is to lead the creation of a new strategic plan to ensure CUF programs and projects are relevant in today’s world, aligned to the needs of their recipients, and properly and appropriately coordinated as we play a lead role in the overall diaspora efforts in helping Ukraine.

As I assume this role, it is my hope to bring my experiences from my professional career and my community involvement to build on the foundation of excellence that exists in the foundation. Although there are new faces joining the board and assuming some of the leadership roles, we are blessed to have the support of not one, but three(!) former presidents of CUF on the board… a laudable example of dedication and care, as well as respect for the importance of institutional memory and succession planning. We are grateful to those who have come before us and those continue to be involved for helping make CUF what it is today. What this means it the executive will be steering the ship with the help of a strong and diverse board. I will also endeavour to support and enable the programming committees as they build, launch, and execute the identified priority programs to the best of my ability. Today’s CUF leadership is merely helping hand the Foundation over from those who made it what it is today, to the generations who follow us and will make it even better than our wildest dreams.

The Pandemic

As you know, in March, everything ground to a halt. The board called a snap meeting and decided to postpone all CUF-related travel until at least labour day. That was subsequently extended to end 2020 and beyond.

We need to recognize that many among us experienced a significant increase in workload in both professional and home schedules despite being home-bound through much of the ongoing pandemic. However, we have found a way to get it done… in many instances in with the support of our partners, parents, children, and grandchildren. And it is those youngest members of our community who have had to be the most resilient through this, those who unfortunately will be paying for this the longest, and at the end of the day, the reason we do what we do here at the Foundation. This is not “our foundation”. We are merely biding our time here as caretakers of this foundation for the future generations who will make it greater than any of us would have ever imagined.

Times of crises bring out the best in people and the worst in people. At times of crises we see some leaders shine while others crumble or fade into obscurity. We see evil thrive while good must galvanize to resist it. The need for the good work accomplished by our projects is greater than ever, and the external environment in which we must operate is more complex than ever. Although slowing and delaying some CUF programs and projects, the pandemic did present opportunities for launching and partnering on new projects which emerged from needs stemming from the pandemic. These projects are highlighted in other stories/posts you can find here: www.cufoundation.ca and on our social media channels.

CUF Evolution

The pandemic also offered an opportunity to evolve CUF, do some housekeeping, and take advantage of being homebound. We focused on refreshing the strategic plan and I’d like to commend the board for their commitment over an extensive process, four planning sessions, three working sessions, 8 guest speakers and over 400 total man-hours spent between early July and October. A summary of the outputs of this process, CUF’s strategic direction over the next 3-5 years, will be included in a separate post/story. In short, internally we will focus on capacity building and the requisite fundraising, improving communications and board engagement & succession planning. We have also identified external opportunities to expand collaboration, streamline the project funding process and leverage technological support across all our projects and programs. Finally, we have also started work on evolving our technological capabilities, our communications with stakeholders, and our financial systems and processes, so in short, lots of work underway… stay tuned!

As a part of our evolution, it is our intention to have more regular communications with our ever-growing pool of stakeholders. As such, you will see a CUF newsletter coming several times a year, with regular social media posts profiling key projects and programs, partner organizations and board members, as well as key events, commemorations, anniversaries, and milestones.

We thank you for your support over 25 years and look forward to your continued support over the next 25. Please visit www.cufoundation.ca to make a donation today.

On behalf of the leadership team of the Canada Ukraine Foundation, please accept our most sincere wishes for a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season, and a blessed, prosperous, and joyous 2021.

Христос Рождається!

Merry Christmas!

Orest Sklierenko

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Humanitarian/Medical News

Health Advisory Committee Update

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation’s (CUF) Health Advisory Team (HAT) aims to be the partner of choice for Ukrainian healthcare institutions, NGOs, and various levels of government health ministries to build capability and capacity within Ukrainian healthcare systems and communities. Through CUF supported and sponsored programs and projects, we promote health by enabling organizations, healthcare practitioners and healthcare promotion advocates to improve the healthcare in the communities that they serve.

The Health Advisory Team was responsible for supporting and implementing a number of critical health initiatives in 2019-2020. Through its collaborations, partnerships and initiatives it was able to bring such programs as the Sunnybrook Ukraine Surgical Educational initiative formalized in September 2019, to hospitals in Lviv, Ukraine.

This three-year initiative partners the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre (through the support of the Sunnybrook Foundation and its donors, in particular, the Temerty Foundation and Ihnatowycz Foundations), Canada-Ukraine Foundation, and three hospitals in Lviv to provide education and training to medical specialists in Ukraine. Dr. Oleh Antonyshyn leads a team of surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses in providing education and training to medical specialists in Ukraine in the fields of microsurgery, craniofacial reconstruction and upper extremity reconstruction.

The program is delivered through advisory missions, live surgery demonstrations, and focused symposia, workshops and educational observerships. The first mission was conducted in October 2019 with a team of six specialists The Canadian team together, with their Ukrainian colleagues completed a total of 25 surgical procedures on patients ranging from 9 to 65 years of age. As part of the program, 138 participants, from various disciplines and from all parts of Ukraine participated in a nationwide symposium covering topics in craniofacial surgery and microsurgery organized by the Canadian team. In addition to the training provided, 460kg of medical equipment and supplies valued at $250,000 CAD was left at the hospitals for their use.

The novel coronavirus pandemic disrupted plans to launch the second mission but work is on-going to develop the initiative and implement new programs.

The pandemic restrictions brought to light other needs that CUF was able to address and support. At the start of the quarantine almost 50,000 children were sent home from orphanages “Internaty” to their biological families who were ill-equipped to welcome their children home. CUF in cooperation with Help Us Help and supported by Ukrainian Canadian Congress and MEEST and in partnership with the Ombudsman for Children with the President of Ukraine provided food and hygiene kits to 250 families in the Zhytomyr Oblast whose children were sent home due to the pandemic.

The ultimate goal of the project was to help facilitate deinstitutionalization reforms in the country that will ensure every child grows up with their family or in a similar family-like setting.

Around the globe, the pandemic is first and foremost on everyone’s mind, but the ongoing war with Russia in Eastern Ukraine isn’t far from our thoughts. The war has left thousands of Ukrainian Veterans with physical and mental trauma that the country’s health system is trying to treat. Through a generous donation by the Dnipro Cultural Centre Oshawa Fund, CUF was able to support the psychological treatment of 50 female veterans and soldiers at The Center of Psychological Counseling & Traumatherapy “Open Doors”. At the start of the project, the mental health specialists at The Open Doors Center in Kyiv provided in-person treatment to the patients, but with the pandemic, they were able to adapt to the restrictions and provide on-line services as well as treatment in the military hospital for those hospitalized. 

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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.

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Community/Education News

Education Committee Update

It was another adventure for teachers in Canada working with their colleagues in Ukraine through Skype and ZOOM during the summer of 2020.  With their counterparts in Ukraine, the Canadian teachers continued their creation and update of professional development programs for teachers in Ukraine during the summer. 

Ukrainian-Canadian teachers, members of the Institute for Professional Development of Teachers with the Ukrainian World Congress, worked with partnered teachers in Ukraine to develop handbooks and other materials.      

In previous years, the Canadian teachers came to Ukraine to hold summer courses certified and added to a Ukrainian teacher’s qualifications. In 2019, as in prior years, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation made it financially possible for the Canadians to come to Ukraine. The Ukraine Boards of Education made it possible for all the local participants to be billeted and accommodated.  The CUF courses were held in Lviv and Mukachevo.

Participation included 20 schools from the Lviv district, five schools from the Lviv region, and 17 schools from the Mukachevo-Transcarpathian school district. Each school sent a team of educators that included the principal, vice-principal in charge of student guidance, an elementary teacher, a science teacher, a language and literature teacher, a foreign language teacher, a mathematics teacher, and a school psychologist. In addition to the school-based teams, educational specialists from the Center of Educational Studies in Lviv and the Mukachevo Council of Education, Youth and Sport attended the courses.

The Institute of Professional Development, based in Toronto, Canada, has been collaborating with the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Education of the Lviv City Council for 26 years. In 2019, the Institute collaborated for the first time with the Mukachevo City Council in the Transcarpathian Oblast.

Canadian team members were:

Summer Institute Director:  Nadia Luciw –  Toronto

Principal’s course:  Bohdan Kolos –  Toronto

Vice-Principal’s course:  Christina Yurchuk – Toronto

Elementary panel:  Oksana Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych – Lviv / Toronto

Ukrainian Language and Literature: Sophia Berezowsky –  Toronto

School psychologists:  Melania Kovaluk – Ottawa

Science: Borislav Bilash II – New Jersey / Winnipeg

Foreign languages:  Iryna Perehinets – Toronto

Mathematics:   Christine Zeltway –  Toronto

The collaborative work goal was to prepare a new generation of teachers with a student-centred approach to teaching that fosters critical thinking and interactive, life-long creative learning.

During the first week of the Summer Institute in 2019, from July 1-5, 220 teachers and administrators from 25 schools from the Lviv region collaborated with their Canadian and Ukrainian colleagues and participated in workshops led by the Canadian and Ukrainian instructors.

In the second week of the Summer Institute, from July 8-12, 17 school-based teams, including 178 administrators, school psychologists and teachers from Mukachevo, participated in courses conducted by Canadian and Ukrainian educators. These courses focused on innovative learning materials that allowed the teams to develop school-based action plans that ensure the New Ukrainian School curriculum’s successful implementation.

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Civil Society News

Civil Society Committee Update

CANADA-UKRAINE FOUNDATION NEWSLETTER

The CUF Civil Society Committee was formed as one of three programming committees to provide a framework for review and support of projects and programs that promote social justice and sustainable development in a free and democratic Ukraine. According to UNDP Ukraine, “A Civil society is a domain/area of social/civil relations beyond the household/family, state and business, where people get together to satisfy and/or promote joint interests and to defend common values.”

Our mission is to support, enable and empower individuals and organizations in Ukraine to implement just, transparent, inclusive and democratic national policies, in efforts to contribute to sustainable development and enhance a learning culture for a civil society.

During the pandemic our committee met through zoom to develop our charter and plan our activities for the next three years. We actively participated in CUF’s Strategic Planning process to ensure that our committee’s activities were aligned with CUF’s overarching strategy. As part of our contribution to the Strategic Planning process, we invited a guest speaker from Ukraine, Natalia Nemyliwska, a Canadian-Ukrainian who has been living in Ukraine since 2004. Natalia is the Director of the Economic Prosperity and Investment Committee at the Ukrainian World Congress and headed the NATO Information and Documentation Centre in Kyiv from 2011-2017. Natalia’s main areas of expertise include security and defence policy and strategic communication. Natalia updated our committee on the current status of civil society in Ukraine and provided insight into how we in the Canadian diaspora could contribute to their efforts.

Our work was impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic but we did not stop our efforts to provide support. In a collaborative effort with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress we were able to raise $25K to support relief initiatives for residents affected by the devastating flooding of the Dnister, Prut and Cheremosh rivers. Partnering with Caritas we were able to provide building materials for the reconstruction and overhaul of flood damaged houses and their preparation for the upcoming winter. Household supplies and sanitary kits (bedding, cleaning supplies, medical masks, gloves and sanitizers were some of the items provided to affected residents.

Flood Relief Project

CUF partnered with HelpAge Canada in support of Seniors in Eastern Ukraine. The Senior’s Relief Project focused on reaching conflict affected older women and men located on the Government Controlled Area side of the contact line within 0-5km from the line of contact to support them with COVID-19 adapted Hygiene kits and advocacy messaging provided through the UNOCHA Protection Cluster (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs). CUF donated $7,600 towards this initiative.

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News

International Human Rights Day

Today, in observance of Human Rights Day, we recognize that all people deserve to live free from discrimination, and be empowered with the basic inherit rights of dignity, respect and self-worth. 

The Road to Truth will raise awareness through the creation of the National Holodomor Museum in Kyiv which is scheduled to open in 2023.  The Holodomor Museum will educate, inform and activate the public to understand how food in the “breadbasket of Europe” was used by Stalin as a weapon to murder millions of innocent people between 1932-33.

The Road To Truth will raise awareness and funding for the creation of a world-class museum telling the story of how the Holodomor impacts issues of public trust, journalistic integrity, fake-news and an informed world public. I encourage you to take a few minutes to visit the microsite for the National Holodomor Museum.

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News Uncategorized

Brief update on main achievements of HelpAge Canada and HelpAge Ukraine project (UKR041)

Posted on August 10th, in  News

From May 2020 to July 2020 HelpAge International in Ukraine implemented the project aimed to reducing the risks of coronavirus infection among older women and men living along the contact line (0- 5) in government-controlled areas (GCA) in Donetsk and Luhansk regions with financial support from HelpAge Canada.

The project covered 20 settlements in the Donbass area, Governmental-controlled area (GCA).

Donetsk region – settlements: Marinka, Krasnogorivka, Taramchuk, Stepne, Novomykhailivka, Novobakhmutivka, Zalizne, Opytne, Vodiane, Pervomaiske.

Lugansk region – settlements: Novotoshkivske, Nyzhnie, Orikhove, Troitske, Komyshuvakha, Zolote, Stanitsa Luhanska, Makarove, Petropavlivka, Valuiske.

 For implement the project HAI recruited one project officer (PO) in each region, one project assistant (PA) and 10 community volunteers (CVs). All these people were employees of HAI in a previous project funded by ECHO, so they are aware of the policies of HAI, humanitarian principles and rules of personal safety and protection of the older people. Before the start of the project implementation the POs conducted a short update training on the rules of working in a pandemic, the using of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and understanding the project’s objectives for volunteers and PAs. Also, when choosing volunteers for the project, we took into account the factor that each of the 20 settlements should be covered by one of our volunteers in order to ensure better access to the beneficiaries and the delivery of non-food items (NFI). The major focus was on provision of COVID-19 adapted hygiene kits, personal protective equipment, COVID-19 prevention through information sharing and guidance on steps needed if one has symptoms and also provide remote psychosocial support via regular check-in mobile phone calls and a HelpAge ‘telephone hotline’ provide accurate and update information on COVID-19.

Additionally, volunteers provided the First Psychological Aid during the visit and provided information about the available services for the older people in specific localities. Since the project is aimed at quick response, it was decided to focus on the beneficiaries of the previous project “ACCESSIII” funded by ECHO. This decision made it possible to save time on additional needs assessment as it relied on its own database of older people. Considering that the ECHO project ended in April and we distributed only sanitizers at that time we have had evidence on high need of hygiene products. Also, according to WHO recommendations, adherence to personal hygiene rules and social distancing are the main factors in curbing the spread of coronavirus infection.

Key achievements

HAI project assistants with the support of volunteers conducted previous database verification. HAI Finance/Log Department selected suppliers in accordance with the HAI procurement procedures and policies. 1000 hygiene kits were purchased (around 16 tons). 1000 stickers with HelpAge Canada and HelpAge International logos were printed for ensure visibility. When forming the set, HAI also guided by the recommendations of the WASH Cluster developed as part of the response to COVID-19. The quantitative composition of the kit is designed for use within three months. Please see Annex 1 for hygiene kits composition. Since the start of the pandemic, we have experienced significant price fluctuations. But since the purchasing power of the population fell, suppliers began to reduce prices for wholesale buyers. Consequently, HAI was able to procure a hygienic kit for three months at the cost of the kit budgeted for one month. Considering that all beneficiaries have chronic diseases and serious health problems, the assistance provided will help significantly reduce the risk of contracting coronavirus infection, improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries and help them adhere to the self-isolation regime.

As at the end of July 2020 the distribution process is coming to an end. A total of 917 sets were distributed. The remaining 51 packs will be delivery to the older people during last week of July 2020. HAI also continued collecting photos and video stories. Unfortunately, during the implementation of the project 32 beneficiaries died, so the hygienic kits will be kept in HAI warehouse and will be delivered to the new beneficiaries as soon as they will be identified in August 2020.

HAI continues providing advocacy through Age and Disability Technical Working Group (ADTWG) on amplifying older people’s voices for ensuring that they are involved in decision-making and that their dignity and autonomy are respected in pandemic. HelpAge chairs the Technical Working group on Age and Disability (ADTWG) formed under the UNOCHA Protection Cluster. The ADTWG aims to strengthen the coordination and capacity of the humanitarian actors to develop and implement age and disability-friendly humanitarian response.

Key numbers

Summary information on beneficiaries included in the 041 project as of 24.07.2020

Photos from the distribution

ANNEX 1

Hygiene Kits composition.

# Description Remarks
1 Toothbrush 2 pcs
2 Toothpaste 300 ml
3 Soap bars 13 x 75 g soap \(900 g total)
4 Shampoo (hypoallergenic if possible) 750 ml
5 Washing powder for clothes, universal and hypoallergenic 4.5 kg
6 Liquid Bleach 6 of 1-liter containers
7 Dishwashing gel / Washing-up liquid 1,5 liters
8 Toilet Paper 6 rolls
9 Garbage bags (35 Litres) 2 rolls of 30 pcs
10 Rubber gloves for cleaning 3 pairs
SUBBOTA TATYANA KONSTANTINOVNA, 68Download
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News

2020 Annual General Meeting for the Canada-Ukraine Foundation

This month the Foundation held its annual general meeting celebrating the completion of another successful year for our organization. This year’s achievements included a number of notable standouts, such as the continuing success of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour and educational and medical missions in Ukraine.

The Foundation also welcomed the appointment of Orest Sklierenko as it’s new President, with former President Victor Hetmanczuk receiving the Canada-Ukraine Foundation’s Award for Distinguished service in recognition of his celebrated tenure with the organization. 

Regarding his posting as the new President, Orest Sklierenko had this to say:

“I am excited about my new role with the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and am honoured to help lead the organization over the next several years as President. One of my early tasks in this role is to lead the creation of a new strategic plan to ensure CUF programs and projects are relevant in today’s world, aligned to the needs of their recipients, and properly and appropriately coordinate and lead the overall diaspora efforts in helping Ukraine.”

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News Uncategorized

Ukrainian Canadian community launches new initiative to support children in Ukraine

Posted on May 20th, in Covid19, News, Featured

May 20, 2020. The COVID-19 Children’s Relief Initiative was launched today as an online appeal to provide support to children in Ukraine in need of basic supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Almost 100,000 children in Ukraine were living in government-run residential institutions or rehabilitation centres prior to the quarantine announced on March 11, 2020. In an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus approximately 50,000 children were sent home to their biological families, many of whom are unable to provide or care for them.

“These families are in dire need right now because tens of thousands of children were sent back from government-run institutions to family residences for isolation purposes,” said Mykola Kuleba, the Ombudsman for Children with the President of Ukraine.

“Currently thousands of families are unable to provide basic food and hygiene supplies to their children,” said Mr. Kuleba. “With your support, these vulnerable children can remain where they belong, at home, with their families.  Information gathered during this time will guide the creation of a long-term strategy”.

Donations are now being accepted to support the purchase of food packages and hygiene kits for these children and their families in Ukraine. These materials will be distributed by social workers as they visit the families to assess the health and well-being of the children.

This initiative is being led by Help Us Help and the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. It is supported by Meest Corporation and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, in partnership with the Ombudsman for Children with the President of Ukraine.

Donations to purchase these kits can be made to either Help Us Help or Canada-Ukraine Foundation and are eligible for tax receipts.  The project website can be found at www.covid19childrensrelief.ca.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation was established to coordinate, develop, organize, and deliver assistance projects generated by Canadians and directed to Ukraine.  Help Us Help is a member of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation and since 1993, has distributed over $25 million in charitable aid to projects and organizations engaged in education, literacy, arts and culture, social work, civil society, and humanitarian aid.

All food packages and hygiene kits are curated by Meest in partnership with Ukrainian retailers and distributed throughout Ukraine by Meest Express directly to social workers. Packages and kits can also be purchased directly through Meest’s eCommerce website giftsforukraine.com. Giftsforukraine.com is a new online service, powered by Meest, that allows users to purchase goods and gifts online for their relatives and friends back home in Ukraine. Meest Corporation Inc. was founded in Toronto in 1989 with the main goal of uniting the Ukrainian diaspora abroad, in Canada, with the homeland, in Ukraine. True to its goal of strengthening ties between Ukraine and the Diaspora in Canada, Meest has long been a sponsor of humanitarian aid shipments from Canada to Ukraine and has a long-standing partnership with Help Us Help and Canada-Ukraine Foundation in delivering aid all across Ukraine.

BACKGROUND

Ukraine has among the highest numbers of institutionalized children in Europe. The majority of these children have families that are unable to provide or care for them. 

Just under 100,000 children were living in residential institutions or rehabilitation centres prior to the quarantine announced on March 11, 2020. In an effort to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus approximately 50,000 children were sent home to their biological families.  There is great concern that, due to a lack of support from social services in place, these children and families will endure additional hardships during the pandemic.   

Mr. Kuleba has long been an advocate for Ukraine to take steps in transitioning from a society that puts parentless or neglected children in institutions, to one with an extensive Social-Care network that allows children to safely remain in their homes or to enter into foster care.

The pandemic has brought about an opportunity for Ukraine to begin this transition by better understanding the needs of the families of children that have been sent home. 

About Deinstitutionalization (DI) Reforms

In 2017, the Ukrainian government adopted the National Deinstitutionalization (DI) Reform Strategy and Action Plan, which involves supporting families and creating favourable conditions for the upbringing of children. While a pilot DI reform project was launched in the Zhytomyr region that same year, the full dismantling of the orphanage system is planned for 2026. 

For more information:

Krystina Waler, Interim Executive Director Help Us Help

Tel: 1-416-627-9941 Email: [email protected]

Website: www.covid19childrensrelief.ca

Categories
Humanitarian/Medical News Uncategorized

CUF’s marathon in helping Ukraine continues

By New Pathway -Dec 24, 2019

Yuri Bilinsky, New Pathway – Ukrainian News.

The Berlin wall came down 30 years ago but psychologically it still shapes the economic and political lives of the people in Eastern Germany. Canada-Ukraine Foundation’s President Victor Hetmanczuk provided this example of how long societal change can take under the best of circumstances, at the UCC’s XXVI Congress in Ottawa in November.

The war in Ukraine has gone for six years and we do not know how long this war will continue, Victor Hetmanczuk said. When the war does end, how long is it going to take us to come up with a meaningful plan to help the people in Luhansk and Donetsk oblast? Are Ukrainians willing to pay a 5.5% solidarity tax that the Germans still pay to subsidize the construction of an equal society in Eastern Germany? Will the Ukrainian diaspora agree to pay a 5.5% tax to help rebuild the Donbas? Who is going to invest an amount comparable to $3 trillion that has been invested into Eastern Germany since late 1980s?

All these questions, which Victor Hetmanczuk posed in his speech at the Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine workshop during the Congress, demonstrate the magnitude of the problems facing Ukraine. These problems won’t be solved with band-aids, it’s going to be a marathon, he said.

This marathon for the Canada-Ukraine Foundation started in 1995 when CUF was established as a National Charitable Public Foundation. Between 2014-2018, CUF conducted 114 projects in Canada and Ukraine. Over these five years, CUF collected more than CAD 9.6 million ($4.9 million were provided by federal and provincial governments). This kind of financing puts CUF among the biggest charitable donors of Ukraine-related projects globally.

Medical supplies provided by CUF

The Foundation is also active in Canada. In 2018, it was successful in obtaining new grants for the Holodomor Bus: $1.5 million from the Federal Government and $750,000 from the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Since the start of the Bus Tour in 2015, around 53 thousand people visited the Bus.

The Canadian Holodomor Bus project has had its repercussions even for Ukraine. During the Toronto Reform Conference in July 2019, President Zelenskyy and his wife visited the Bus at the Holodomor Monument in the CNE grounds. It made an impact on them to the point of further meetings were held in Kyiv recently that could lead to a draft Memorandum of Understanding about CUF’s participation in the building and programming of a similar bus for Ukraine.

The Holodomor Tour Bus in Ottawa

CUF has as its charitable objectives relief of poverty, advancement of education, health care and religion, assisting in observation of elections and other purposes beneficial to the community.

In Ukraine, CUF’s medical mission has consisted of the following: surgical missions, upgrading of medical skills, assistance for the Dzherelo Rehabilitation Centre, dental program for orphans and PTSD support for veterans.

Dzherelo Rehabilitation Centre

CUF’s Ukrainian medical missions have just seen a significant extension. The Foundation has signed a three-year agreement with the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre to participate in the Sunnybrook Ukraine Surgery Education Partnership located in Lviv. Within the partnership, there will be master classes for surgeons, a symposium and an observership in Toronto. In October 2019, on the first mission, 26 patients had operations done in three operation rooms simultaneously, while 138 doctors attended the one-day symposium.

Within CUF’s Ukrainian dental program, 427 orphaned children were examined and received 448 dental appointments where they had 720 dental fillings and numerous other treatments. 47 professionals and volunteers from Ukraine were involved in this program.

CUF’s Ukrainian dental program

The Defenders of Ukraine projects in 2018 were funded by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress National from the proceeds of the Invictus Games event in Toronto in 2018. These projects included Ukrainian Social Academy for “Boots to Business” entrepreneurship training program for veterans and funding for the Donbas ATO Veterans Union and Centre Poruch for psychological support of veterans and their families. The Defenders of Ukraine projects also funded the Veterans House for ATO veterans providing temporary shelter and rehabilitation programs. Pobratymy and Dopomoha Ukraini organizations funded the training in overcoming combat shock trauma and preventing PTSD for veterans.

CUF expects that its revenue in 2019 will amount to $2.3M. These funds will help the Foundation remain the focal point of the Ukrainian Canadian community’s assistance to Ukraine. One of the UCC Congress’ resolutions reads that the UCC will continue to support and augment Canadian humanitarian assistance to Ukraine through the existing mandate of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. CUF will collaborate with UCC to coordinate, promote, help prioritize and maximize the effectiveness of aid to Ukraine. UCC’s provincial councils are encouraged to communicate to their membership CUF’s mission and objectives. Member organizations of UCC are also encouraged to access the CUF advisory groups for information, guidance and assistance.

The Foundation’s marathon in helping Ukraine overcome its hardships is continuing.