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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

American Pupils Spend Holidays in Rivne Region

10 April, 1999 - 00:00

By Volodymyr KONIEV, The Day

Despite the war in Yugoslavia and a serious upsurge of anti-American sentiments
in our society, US humanitarian programs in Ukraine have not been suspended,
as a unique plan currently implemented in Rivne oblast shows.

For the first time since the Chornobyl disaster a large group of American
children has arrived in Ukraine. 84 high-school students from the town
of Winnechi, Washington and twenty adult guardians will spend eight days
in the Elektronyk health resort near the city of Rivne.

The key objective of this initiative, said Norman Carlson, the Ukrainian
Medical Team Director and one of  mission organizers, is to help American
and Ukrainian teenagers get to know each other better. In the next century
some of them will determine their countries' policies, and the better they
become acquainted with one another now, the easier it will be for them
to communicate in the future.

However, communication between the two cultures is taking place under
the watchful eyes of close observation by numerous Ukrainian police officers
patrolling the resort area. According to Elektronyk Director Ruslan Dimurov,
due to the events in Yugoslavia it was not quite certain up to the very
last moment if the Americans would come.

Communication between teens from different countries  acquired
an informal nature from the very beginning. After a few days of their joint
holidays, it was difficult to tell at first glance Ukrainian youngsters
from Americans.

Still, there is a basic difference between Ukrainian  and overseas
teenagers. The Winnechi children paid part of the cost of their journey
to distant Ukraine themselves, by harvesting citrus fruit crops. To their
new friends in Ukraine such a means of providing for a trip abroad is unfamiliar.

According to the organizers, the first experience of joint Ukrainian-American
holidays has turned out more than successful, and before the end of this
summer it is planned to send several groups of pupils to Rivne oblast from
abroad. A total of 600 American teenagers showed an interest in visiting
Ukraine this year.

 

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