On the flight home from Ukraine following my second visit I read a magazine article by Myroslava Barchuk outlining a story of an event I knew absolutely nothing about. It shocked me as I’m sure it will shock you if you read it. It shocked me too that, having studied history to some depth at school, I knew nothing about a terrible tragedy which killed between seven and ten million people in a European country. I determined to do whatever I could to raise awareness of the awful famines which only seventy years before had led to such slaughter in a country often referred to as “The Bread Basket of Europe”.
To appreciate why our Association is important and must continue to grow in numbers and understanding I believe we need to comprehend what Myroslava Barchuk means when he writes, “It is increasingly horrifying to realize that millions of my fellow Ukrainians who were imprisoned physically and spiritually murdered by the Soviet regime, who were killed by the Famine of 1932-1933, were not just the victims of a terrible injustice – they were the carriers of truth, mercilessly destroyed.”
Ukraine will be marking the 75th Anniversary of the Famine this year. There will be exhibitions, conferences and meetings. Much material will be published and S.A.K.A. will focus its fund-raising activities on trying to make the lives of the poor, elderly in Kaniv a little more tolerable. Amazingly there are some survivors of the Famines, who managed also to live through the “Patriotic War” of the 1940’s and the Chernobyl disaster. I hope you will be able to help us in our endeavours.
I have copies of the magazine article to which I have referred as do the Prime-Minister, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Our Member of Parliament, Greg Clark, hopes to put down an Early Day Motion about the 75
To appreciate why our Association is important and must continue to grow in numbers and understanding I believe we need to comprehend what Myroslava Barchuk means when he writes, “It is increasingly horrifying to realize that millions of my fellow Ukrainians who were imprisoned physically and spiritually murdered by the Soviet regime, who were killed by the Famine of 1932-1933, were not just the victims of a terrible injustice – they were the carriers of truth, mercilessly destroyed.”
Ukraine will be marking the 75th Anniversary of the Famine this year. There will be exhibitions, conferences and meetings. Much material will be published and S.A.K.A. will focus its fund-raising activities on trying to make the lives of the poor, elderly in Kaniv a little more tolerable. Amazingly there are some survivors of the Famines, who managed also to live through the “Patriotic War” of the 1940’s and the Chernobyl disaster. I hope you will be able to help us in our endeavours.
I have copies of the magazine article to which I have referred as do the Prime-Minister, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. Our Member of Parliament, Greg Clark, hopes to put down an Early Day Motion about the 75
th
Anniversary and I am very grateful for his support. Please contact me if you would like to read the article. New Committee Member, Mike Bailey, has read the article and wrote as a result “This makes very sad and disturbing reading, however, it has made me even more determined to help the Kaniv people in any way I can, and am pleased to be a member of this Association. My personal thanks for what you and the Association are doing for our Kaniv friends, I’m happy to be on-board.” That’s good to know Mike and we’re pleased you are on-board.
/ Mike Handcock
/ Mike Handcock
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