UWC International Educational Coordinating Council launches project “Honouring the Past for a Better Future”

On 29 December 2016, Tania Kohut, the President of the Ukrainian Writers for Children and Youth (UWCY), donated $10,000 on behalf of the community organization to the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) International Educational Coordinating Council (IECC) for a joint project entitled “Honouring the Past for a Better Future”.

As part of the project “Honouring the Past for a Better Future”, members of the IECC will gather a bibliography of all UWCY publications; create a digital archive and enable access to these publications for upcoming generations of children and teachers.

IECC Deputy Chair Yevgeniya Petrova thanked Tania Kohut and all UWCY members for their many years of dedicated work which contributed to the formation of an Ukrainian perspective enabling several generations of children and youth in the diaspora to receive a patriotic education.

The project “Honouring the Past for a Better Future” was discussed and accepted by the UWC Board of Directors. While presenting the project, IECC Chair Oksana A. Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych emphasized that the donated funds were raised by UWCY members from donors whose intention was to support the dissemination of the literary legacies of diaspora authors and illustrators and that it is important that the funds be used in the spirit in which they were donated.

UWCY is a community organization which has supported the writing, illustration and publication of books for children and youth of the Ukrainian diaspora during the past 70 years. During this period, the organization has moved its offices from Munich, Germany (1946), to New York, U.S.A. (1951), to Toronto, Canada (1954). Members of the organization have included executive members of the IECC including: Ivan Bodnarchuk (1910-1990), Victor Pedenko (1937-2009), Lesia Khraplyva-Schur and Tania Onyschuk.

“During this term, and particularly in 2017 when the UWC will be celebrating its 50th anniversary, the strategic vision of the International Educational Coordinating Council is to compile, organize and provide access to educational materials that have been produced in the diaspora throughout the 20th century,” stated IECC Chair Oksana A. Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych. “We are extremely grateful to the UWCY, and particularly to its President, Tania Kohut, in that they have entrusted us with this gift. We will try to ensure that many more generations of children, teachers and parents will be able to enjoy the 70-year legacy of authors and illustrators of children’s literature in the diaspora.”

 

In the photo from left: Y. Petrova, T. Kohut and O. A. Wynnyckyj-Yusypovych