Lydia Tomkiw

Ukrainian scouting sees record enrollment during wartime

Ukraine

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of their country, parents in Ukraine are increasingly signing their children up for the patriotic education, outdoor activities and summer camps offered by the 112-year-old scouting organization Plast — similar to the Boy Scouts, but with a mission to preserve Ukrainian identity and language. 

‘These songs are about us’: As Ukrainians grieve wartime losses, mourning rituals see a resurgence

Ukraine

Conservators scan Ukraine’s wooden churches to help preserve them

Sacred Spaces

‘We have to care for every soldier, for every civilian’: Ukraine faces major mental health challenges as a result of war trauma  

Ukraine

Using literature to help children cope with war and trauma

Ukraine
During a recent morning mass, Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church, in Lviv, Ukraine, is packed.

Ukrainian Greek Catholics lament lack of support by Vatican amid war with Russia

Sacred Nation

Pope Francis recently praised Russian historical figures in a speech to Russian youth. To members of Ukraine’s Greek Catholic community, these comments were deemed “painful” amid the ongoing war with Russia, and put a spotlight on their needs and concerns.

soldiers in rehab center

Wounded Ukrainian soldiers start new journeys on prosthetics

Ukraine

​​​​​​​Many Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have lost limbs and need to be fitted with prosthetics. A group of soldiers in New York City is receiving treatment, and they’re already thinking about what their lives will look like when they return home.

Carnegie Hall in New York, May 12, 2020. 

As war rages at home, Ukrainian choir heads to Carnegie Hall to celebrate 100 years of ‘Carol of the Bells’

Ukraine

In 1922, a Ukrainian choir sang the song “Shchedryk” at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The tune became a Christmas sensation known as “Carol of the Bells.” This Sunday, a Ukrainian choir will once again perform the famous song at Carnegie Hall. 

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra rehearses at the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, Poland, the day before the premiere performance of the "Voice of Ukraine" tour that took them to nine cities across Poland and Germany

The Kyiv Symphony Orchestra fights on the war’s ‘cultural front’

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense granted special permission for the male musicians to leave the country, calculating that the world will be more motivated to protect Ukraine if it sees its culture as something precious and worth saving.

Students at the Warsaw Ukrainian School (SzkoUA), in Warsaw, Poland, sing during an English lesson.

‘Their lives collided with war’: Ukrainian refugees in Poland open their own schools

Ukraine

In recent weeks, some Ukrainians in Warsaw have opened their own schools to let displaced children finish the school year in their own language and according to their own education system. 

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