We are moving towards victory: how the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation works during the war
With the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine, the team of the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation was in different cities. However, we continue to work and now focus on helping volunteer initiatives from the alumni community of “Youth will Change Ukraine” program. More details in the article.
Today, the Foundation’s team is actively volunteering to provide help in our cities: we cook food for the military and migrants in Lutsk, help in the settlement of temporarily displaced people in Lviv, buy food and medicine according to urgent requests of volunteer organizations. The co-founders of the Foundation are also actively raising funds from international partners for key Ukrainian and foreign funds that currently support our country.
Obviously, one of the tasks of a full-scale offense against Ukraine was to separate its people, but we all united in a single invincible front.
How the Foundation works during the war
Many of our graduates are active volunteers and military in their regions. We receive regular requests from them for support. Having formed a community in Ukraine, abroad and the ability to track internal requests in the regions, the Foundation’s team redistributed program funds to support volunteer initiatives in the regions of Ukraine.
During March, such microfinance assistance was provided through our ambassadors. Currently, volunteer initiatives have been supported in Odeska, MykolaivskA, Zaporizka, Volynska, Poltavska, Zakarpatska, Vinnytska, Kharkivska and Cherkasska oblasts.
Key areas of support for volunteer initiatives of the community of alumni of the “Youth will Change Ukraine” Foundation:
- purchase of medicine;
- humanitarian support for evacuees;
- assistance to Foundation’s graduates who suffered from the war;
- other point queries.
We continue to support the local inquiries of our graduates through the Foundation’s ambassadors.
Also on April 4-7, the Foundation conducted a survey among members of the community “Youth will Change Ukraine” to study volunteering skills in different regions of Ukraine. The questionnaire was filled out by 169 respondents who are actively volunteering within Ukraine. 72.8% of respondents (123 respondents) volunteer in the humanitarian field, another 27.2% (46 respondents) – in the military.
According to the results of the survey, a report (UKR) has been created, which can be found at this link: https://bit.ly/3xhnubi
You can join in support of requests from our volunteers here: https://bhfamily.org/en/pidtrymaty-fond/
We also leave full details for the transfer of funds (UAH, USD, EUR): https://bit.ly/3CCjvqw
We also want to share good news from abroad. On April 15, the cultural center for Ukrainians GE CARE UKRAINE was opened by the Maison Kultura Foundation, the Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Family Foundation, the Society of Ukrainians in Switzerland, and active volunteers in Geneva. The center is equipped for drawing, knitting, floristry, Ukrainian language and history lessons, as well as organizing educational, cultural, and psychological projects. More than 2,000 books (textbooks and fiction) have already been transferred there. The organizers say that the Center should become a home for all Ukrainian men and women. “We unite and do not act alone, but cooperate with everyone…,” said Inna Akhtyrska, head of the Geneva branch of the Society of Ukrainians in Switzerland.
Another important project is the radio program ‘Radio Cité pour l’Ukraine’ that introduces Swiss people to Ukrainian culture, history and current news. It is founded and co-moderated by President of the Foundation Christine Hawrylyshyn-Batruch. Every week, on Mondays and Fridays at 14:00, as well as every Saturday at 9:00, the program airs news, interesting and original facts about Ukraine. Among the guests, who have already visited the program, are writer Oles Ilchenko, Inna Akhtyrska, the head of the Geneva branch of the Society of Ukrainians in Switzerland, and others. The program is conducted in Ukrainian and French. We invite you to listen: https://radiocite.ch/chart/radio-cite-pour-lukraine/
We continue to dream big!
Like every organization and every person, the Foundation continues to make a small contribution to bringing our victory closer. We also continue to dream big about the time when we will announce the start of new programs, and we will unite talented young people again.
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Armed Forces! Glory to our Ukrainian people!