Ukrainian Youth Association’s (CYM) charitable project “Let’s fill their hearts with warmth” won in the category of “Youth and Children’s Charity” in the National Competition “Charitable Ukraine – 2017.”

The announcement of the winners took place March 22, 2018 at the Kyiv Administration Building, where certificates and special “Goodwill Angels” were presented.

In 2017 alone, this CYM initiative collected almost $92,000 USD, which was used to purchase gifts for 3,235 children of Ukrainian military personnel and internally displaced children from Donbas.In fact, during the four years of the “Let’s fill their hearts with warmth” campaign, CYM members collected and donated over 7,000 gifts to Ukraine for a total amount of $200,000 USD.

CYM Ukraine, Andriy Fendyk, Canadian-born Andrea Kardasz, who is also a member of CYM Ukraine’s National Executive, and Volodymyr Pohoretsky and Andriy Svorovsky, both members of the Kyiv Branch of CYM Ukraine. “We are all doing good work individually, but together we are building a great, independent, sovereign state!”, commented President of the National Executive of CYM in Ukraine Andriy Fendyk in his thank you.

It was a pleasant surprise to meet with the President of Caritas Ukraine, fellow CYM member Andrij Waskowycz, who accepted an award on behalf of the International Charitable Foundation Caritas Ukraine for charitable work in social services. “CYM members today won two awards! And this is wonderful for the CYM world!”, shared Andrij Waskowycz.

It was symbolic that CYM received its award from Kateryna Yushchenko, a former membe of CYM U.S.A. and now the chair of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Fund.

The “Association of Philanthropists of Ukraine” is the founder of this contest. Its goal is to develop effective socially-oriented philanthropy, charity and volunteerism in Ukraine by publicly promoting the best philanthropists, patrons and volunteers, their organizations and practices.

According to the organizers of the contest, 1054 applications were received by the National Contest “Charitable Ukraine-2017”, which is an increase of 310 from the previous year. This year’s winners were awarded in 15 collective, 3 individual and 3 special categories.

In total, 856 applications were submitted as collective applications, 129 in the individual and 69 in the special category. The largest number of applications was 149 in the collective category “Youth and Children’s Charity”.