« »

18 August 2009 09:42

Ukrainian Czechs Receive Non-Fiction Literature from Ukraine 3000 Foundation

The Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation donated journalism-related books to the editorial library of the Ukrayinsky zhurnal [Ukrainian Magazine] publication by RUTA Ukrainian Czechs Alliance.

The Replenishing of Ukrayinsky zhurnal’s Editorial Library project was one of the winners of the Flourish, the Ukrainians! Program to support diaspora organizations by Ukraine 3000 Foundation. The program’s goal is developing the Ukrainian community abroad, supporting and popularizing Ukrainian language and culture globally.

The most part of the donated books are Ukrainian dictionaries of synonyms, orthographic dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedias, and publications on general and cultural history of Ukraine.

RUTA Alliance services cultural needs of the Ukrainian community in Czech Republic and informs representatives of the titular ethnic group on Ukraine’s cultural, historical, and political features. The Alliance’s major activity is publishing a magazine for the Ukrainians in Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia, Ukrayinsky zhurnal (www.ukrzurnal.eu). It was founded in 2005 for “the lack of a publication in the native language, which would offer Ukrainian residing in this region a rostrum and forum for discussing major problems of the Ukrainian community.”

Last year, a leaflet for Ukrainian migrant workers was published as a supplement to Ukrayinsky zhurnal, Everything You Need to Know, covering legal changes connected with Czech Republic’s joining the Schengen zone. Its 10,000 pressrun was distributed free of charge. As part of the integration projects, the Alliance published a digest of the Ukrayinsky zhurnal on Holodomor Manmade Famine of 1932-1933 and Ukrainian-Czech relations in the late 19th- early 20th centuries in Czech language. As part of the Research of the Presence of the Ukrainian Minority in Czech Republic’s Territory and Ukrainian Documents in Czech and Moravian Archives project, it became possible to receive copies of photographs by Florian Zapletal from Transcarpathian Ukraine, dated back from the early 20th century (almost 1,000 photos), and a part of graphic art collections of the Slavic Library at the National Library of Czech Republic and the Liberation Movement Museum in Prague.

At present, around 50,000 Ukrainians reside in Czech Republic.