On December 4, 2018, at Lviv Polytechnic National University, a meeting was held with Yurii Danylyshyn, Head of the Ukrainian Cultural Association Prosvita (UCA Prosvita) in Argentina, Regional Vice President of Ukrainian World Congress. The event took place under the slogan «Enlightenment in Argentina: a Path for Century» and was organized by the International Institute of Education, Culture and Diaspora Relations.
The meeting was opened by Iryna Kliuchkovska, IECDR Director, who noted the intensive work of the Ukrainian community in Argentina, which studiously preserves Ukrainian identity on the South American continent, thousands of kilometers away from their native land, and provides Ukraine with effective support in time of Russian Federation aggression. The IECDR Director also emphasized the importance of supporting national diaspora in Argentina by Ukraine, and reminded about successful cooperation of UCA Prosvita and IECDR, which began in 2012 and successfully continues till now.
For the first time Yurii Danylyshyn became the Head of the Ukrainian Cultural Association Prosvita in Argentina in 1995. He was the first Head born outside Argentina. According to Mr. Danylyshyn, he received the «mandate to be Ukrainian» from his father and a generation of Prosvita members born in Ukraine. Mr. Danylyshyn is an architect, living in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina.
Despite the fact that, according to Mr. Danylyshyn, the purpose of his presentation was not to present a historical study of the migration processes of Ukrainians in Argentina and South America, the representatives of the education and cultural institutions of Lviv, as well as Lviv Polytechnic students, learned not only about the history and the topical Prosvita projects in Argentina, but about the waves of migration of Ukrainians to the countries of South America, the specifics of the life of Ukrainian communities in the region and the support of Ukrainian Argentines for Ukraine in time of Russian hybrid warfare.
Professor Khrystyna Burshtynska, the Head of Prosvita Association at University, Doctor of Technical Science, and Oksana Sapeliak, a well-known Ukrainian scholar, public activist, researcher of the Ukrainian diaspora in Argentina and South America, and others addressed the audience.
At Lviv Polytechnic National University the Head of the Ukrainian Cultural Association Prosvita in the Argentine Republic Yurii Danylyshyn also had a meeting with Roman Korzh, Vice-Rector on Scientific and Pedagogical work of University.
Photos by Yosyp Marukhniak and Nataliia Pavlyshyn