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Kateryna Yushchenko’s speech at the presentation of the Ukraine 3000 Charitable Foundation

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

I am really glad to greet all of you!

We have gathered in this nice hall on an important occasion – the presentation of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation.

I think I will not err to say each of you in this hall has at least once in life thought about what he or she could do to make our life better for all. Our country went through hardship and despair. It is time we restore it spiritually and materially. It is time we look around and help those in need. There are many such people in Ukraine.

This is why this Foundation was established in 2001. We realized that creating Ukraine’s future today we give the people a chance to see perspectives and confidently build their own future. 

“Being good to people and encouraging others to be good” is our motto. As a Ukrainian citizen and the President’s wife, I find it really important to make this mission clear to everyone.

Everything we do is focused on individuals and their unique personalities and needs.

So let me address you with a call – let us be good to people and work for it. Today, in this hall, there are our friends who have been cooperating with the Foundation for several years. There are also state officials who I ask to be more attentive to people’s needs irrespective of those people’s status. You should be aware of problems faced by regional residents, and ways to solve them.

I am also addressing the media with a request to be considerate and tactful towards the diseased, orphans, and people with particular needs. You have a powerful means to show society what it can become if it opens inexhaustible resources of kindness and compassion.

As Head of the Supervisory Council of our Foundation, I would like to use our potential to solve acute social problems.

These are preservation and revival of our rich and half-forgotten cultural heritage and aid we can offer to create a civilized system to treat children and help orphans and people with particular needs.

Together with many like-minded people, we want to make Ukrainians believe in themselves and discover their deep spiritual roots which tie them to hundreds of generations of their ancestors.

This is the reason why major areas of our activity are called Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Looking back on our past, we create our future.

One of our most significant programs in the Yesterday field is “History Lessons: Genocide Famine of 1932-1933.” We dedicate it to all dead, alive, and unborn Ukrainians who fell victim to those famines artificially caused by Stalin’s regime. We would like to make this topic public and thus heal the wound, which has hurt for seventy years.

We pay much attention to solve problems we face Today. Sometimes it is hard to believe that in the 21st century children who have leukemia die because they lack necessary drugs.

Without a private initiative and joint actions and programs, we will never be able to eradicate homelessness, solve problems of the disabled, orphans, and incurable patients. Even the best social budget in the world will not help solve these problems because a person's life often depends on timely and high-quality aid. As an example, let us recall the story of Nastya Ovchar.

Our Tomorrow activities are based on the so-called Public Strategy of Ukraine’s Development. We urge all who are not indifferent to the direction Ukraine chooses for the future to participate in this project. It is aimed at ensuring harmonic development of individuals and the country. Strategic decisions that concern our future must be reached using public potential.

The poet Vasyl Symonenko once wrote: “There are thousands of roads and a million narrow paths/ There are thousands of fields, but only one is mine.”

There are thousands of ways to create good and help people. Each of us can choose his or her own “field”, his or her own way to help the country and its people.

I urge all of you to actively cooperate with our Foundation in the framework of those projects you find interesting.

The community is expecting businessmen not only to achieve economic results but also help solve social problems. A favorable society can create more auspicious conditions for business to function.

The scope of our moral commitments is wider than that stipulated by the law. Let us extend it to help those in need.

The Tereshchenko family's coat of arms bore the following inscription: “Aspiring for public benefit.” Let us revive this aspiration in our hearts and our deeds.

In Ukraine, there are already worthy successors of Khanenko, Tereshchenko, and Kharitonenko. I would like there to be more such people. Charity is a great vocation for great people. I know thousands of Ukrainians who help others and find this as natural as living, breathing, and working. Where would we be today, if we had not helped each other in hardship? I promise you will be proud of yourselves and the new Ukraine that you will create through your charitable deeds and careful attitude toward its future.

A wise person once said: “as you sow, you shall mow.”

Let us sow good for the prosperity of our Motherland and each fellow citizen.

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Thank you for your attention and understanding.