On August 3, 2021, Lyudmyla Vusek, Head of the Education Office, the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA), paid a business visit to the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University.
UNWLA is one of the oldest organizations operating in the Ukrainian community of North America. It was founded by 5 women from New York in 1925. Then Ukrainian women set themselves the goal of informing the world about Ukraine, materially and morally supporting the Motherland, preserving Ukrainian heritage and culture. The Ukrainian National Women’s League of America continues to carry out this mission today.
According to Lyudmyla Vusek, UNWLA actively works with young people. Thus Iryna Kliuchkovska and Oksana Horda, employees of the Institute, talked to the guest about their work with young people to preserve their Ukrainian identity. IECDR members presented the most relevant educational projects, which should involve teachers of Ukrainian educational institutions in the United States. Prospective areas of cooperation were also discussed.
It should be noted that members of the UNWLA, which is part of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations and with which IECDR signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, are frequent guests of large-scale events of IECDR.
On August 9, 2021, Iryna Kliuchkovska met with Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of Lviv Regional State Administration (LRSA). At the meeting they discussed the issues of cooperation between LRSA and its structural subdivisions (the Department of International Technical Assistance and International Cooperation and the Department of Education and Science) with IECDR. The Chairman of LRSA supported a number of IECDR initiatives, in particular the introduction of the Day of the Ukrainian Diaspora in Ukraine.
On August 12, 2021, a well-known diplomat of Ukrainian origin Zenon Koval visited IECDR. This is not the first meeting with an activist of the Ukrainian diaspora, a representative of the glorious Koval family, which has written its important page in the struggle for independence of Ukraine.
Zenon Koval met with the academic community at Lviv Polytechnic. Also he participated in numerous events of the Ukrainian World Congress, which took place at the University.
Mr. Koval has extensive experience in the diplomatic service. In the early 1990s, Zenon Koval, as an adviser, actively assisted the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to Belgium, Volodymyr Vasylenko, to defend Ukraine’s position and interests. He later worked as head of diplomatic missions in Prague, Hanoi, Tunisia and Warsaw. After the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the war in Donbas, Mr. Zenon worked in the coordination group of the Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the EU.
The issues of cooperation were discussed at the meeting. Zenon Koval expressed his readiness to share his experience of working with students of our University.