During the Christmas season, a time of giving and a time of hope, children of the Ukrainian Youth Association in Canada along with children from the United States have opened up their hearts to children in Ukraine, who have been affected by the on-going war in eastern Ukraine.
The Hamilton Branch of the Ukrainian Youth Association (UYA) hosted an international educational conference in November in 2014 attended by 40 counselors from Canada, United States, Argentina and Ukraine. Here, the participants, representing 20 branches of the organization in North and South America, learned first-hand from the one of the conferences organizing counselors from Ukraine of the tragic circumstances of hundreds of children in Ukraine who have been orphaned, or displaced from war zones in Donbas and Luhansk regions to different regions of central and western Ukraine. These children have been uprooted hundreds of kilometers from their homes, families and friends and find themselves in very difficult and challenging circumstances.
The counselors from North America felt compelled to help and quickly created a plan to pair up with branches of the UYA in Ukraine to start a clothing and toy drive. Through existing volunteer centres in Ukraine, members of the UYA in Ukraine were able to provide names and ages of children that were in need to branches of the UYA in Canada and the United States. In only a few weeks, children in Canada, from 8 different UYA branches across the country, namely, Montreal, Ottawa, Etobicoke, Mississauga, Hamilton, St. Catherines, Edmonton and Calgary were able to collect over half a tonne of warm clothing, toys, and school supplies and ship it to Ukraine in time for the Christmas season. Over 10 different branches in the United States also collected donations. With the help of the UYA branches in Ukraine, these gifts will be distributed between St.Nicholas’ day, when children traditionally receive presents, and January 7th, Christmas day in Ukraine.
In many cases, children personalized this humanitarian effort. For example, in many of the branches, children wrote notes and Christmas cards. In the UYA Mississauga branch children, many whom were picking up knitting needles the first time in their lives, knitted woollen scarves to help children stay warm in the winter season. In the UYA Montreal branch, each child’s donation was acknowledged with a red heart which was placed in the window of their community centre.
Earlier in the year, during the summer camp season, hundreds of children from the UYA wrote letters to soldiers and volunteers on the front lines, to let them know that they support and care for them and the future independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine. This winters’ clothing and toy drive again shows love and support for the children of those soldiers, who will be celebrating Christmas apart from their children and loved ones.
The kindness and generosity of the UYA youth in Canada and the United States and their families should be applauded. Their sincere efforts have embraced the true meaning of Christmas by filling the hearts of children in Ukraine with the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ and with many blessings.
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