Nestled in the rolling blue-green Carpathian Mountains stand several small chalets. Inside the largest one is a restaurant overlooking the Prut River decorated with unique Ukrainian antiques. During one lazy Saturday afternoon, diners begin to hear the dim sound of a Ukrainian song. A wedding march is walking up the small hill and has stopped outside the chalets. All one can see are two traditional Ukrainian wedding trees, the dazzling cornucopia headdress of the bride-to-be and the bobbing heads of hundreds of children. This is no ordinary wedding, this is a camp re-enactment: the fake bride and groom aren’t yet old enough to drink. This year’s Help Us Help the Children (HUHTC) camp theme is Ukrainian months. And on this particular day, the season of Ukrainian weddings is celebrated.
In Vorokhta, Ukraine, about 320 children from all over Ukraine have gathered for something many Ukrainian-Canadians have experienced numerous times in their lives: summer camp! This camp, however, is different – it includes a large percentage of orphaned and disabled children. This year also marks an increased number of kids who have suffered due to the war in Ukraine: displaced children, refugee Crimean Tatars, and children who have lost their fathers in the war.
The camp began in 1996 and as Ruslana Wrzesnewskyj, the creator and former director of the camp stated, it has always been based on life-skills and the principles of a Plast camp “but more lenient because these were orphaned kids.” The camp expanded from 110 children in 1996 to its largest ever at over 500 in 2009. At first, “nobody spoke Ukrainian” but Ruslana soon realized that “there was a real need for this camp” since many children needed to learn the life-skills being taught, “they learn leadership skills – based on positive reinforcement and a lot of love.”
One of the most successful of the children who graduated from the HUHTC camp is Darya. Originally from Kharkiv, she grew up in an orphanage and was chosen to come to the camp in 1999. She finished and came back as a councillor, won a Fulbright award, created her own company and now works for Apple. She recalled her first camp experience, “I didn’t speak any Ukrainian…people from overseas spoke better Ukrainian than we did and that was inspiring.” The life-skills that Darya was taught at camp and the emotional support she received from her councillors “changed my life” she says. She learned that she was “not the trash of society - that I can be what I want to be.” She entered a private university and worked several jobs to pay for this – she found that she was motivated to change her life and show that an orphan can succeed. She believes that one of the greatest benefits of the camp program is the leadership workshops but also acknowledges that having “familiar faces and emotional/educational support for the kids” is just as important. Over the years, the camp has become a home and the campers and councillors have become a family.
Ruslana acknowledges that it has not been an easy experience. The first camp was run-down and the old Soviet system in the town was still very much in place. “There was nothing in town, nothing!” She had to drive into Yaremche for supplies and in that first year, everyone including the foreigners needed to be registered with the authorities. During Kuchma’s time in office, the camp was raided by the Berkut. She admits that, at times, “it was a horror story.” She also concedes that the camp did get some troubled and tough youths that needed to be sent home for breaking the rules. However, this camp is no different from any in Canada – kids are taught to respect their own property and the property of others.
This is now the third generation of camps that HUHTC has administered. The first generation, which includes Darya, are now adults with their own children and their own careers. The second generation are now the councillors of this year’s camp. Ihor from Ivano-Frankivsk, for example, was a kid at camp in 2008 and is now a volunteer and instructor. He admits that he heard a lot of good things about the camp before and he wanted to try it out – he “didn’t want any regrets.” After the first year, he “didn’t ever want to leave the camp and…waited with anticipation for the next camp and did everything possible to be asked back.” He also acknowledges that it is easier for him as a native Ukrainian to establish a connection with this current generation of campers, “I was like the kids themselves and it’s easier for me to talk to them as I have found myself in similar situations.”
Ruslana confesses that the entire experience for her has been a “life-changer, it changes everyone’s perspective on life.” The program has grown from humanitarian aid to camps to scholarships to HIV/AIDs and human trafficking awareness to now psychological help for children affected by the different crises that have occurred in Ukraine. Some of her former campers and councillors have been killed either on the Maidan or on the front-lines in Ukraine’s war with Russia. And with a saddened smile, Ruslana muses that hurts deeply “when we lose them because they’re our friends.” But overall, she’s happy that she did something – “no regrets!” The kids here not only develop “a consciousness, develop an identity, but they also realize there’s someone out there that cares for them,” she concludes.
The camp has also had some very happy stories including one that occurred several years previously when the theme was again centered on the different Ukrainian monthly traditions. Ruslana recalls that during a re-enactment of a Ukrainian Easter mass, one of the female children from one of the three camps was hitting her councillor. The girls looked up at her councillor and said: “that’s my sister over there, I’ve been looking for her for years.” The girls were separated into different orphanages and re-united by chance at the HUHTC Camp during the Easter re-creation in Vorokhta.
The camp program tries to build skills that kids will need in their everyday lives but also tries to bring out their hidden talents. This year, for example, one of the many international volunteers is Greg Selinger, a break-dancer from Montreal. Here, he is known as “Hryts” and only learned about the situation in Ukraine over a Skype conversation with a friend. He states that “it’s easier than I thought, I thought it was going to be more emotionally draining since the kids are coming from broken families and lost their families in the war or taken away from their mothers…I really thought I would have a difficult time coping but the kids are so emotionally excited and happy to have the tiniest bit of attention and appreciation and encouragement and the kids really latch on to the councillors”. He has taught not only fully-abled children to express themselves through dance but in the camp’s annual concert, several disabled kids performed dance moves that were inspired by what Greg has taught them. Overall, he admits “it will be hard to leave and not come back” to the camp next year.
Other international volunteers include many Canadians from across the country and from different youth groups. Marnie Howlett is from Saskatoon and this is her second year at the camp. And even though she isn’t fluent in Ukrainian she believes that “you don’t need to speak the language but you just need to hang out with the kids.” All the kids leave a lasting impression. For Marnie, for example, some of her children from last year were evacuated from Mariupol during the year and she helped raise money for them in Saskatoon. Marnie continues, “the kids are awesome…giving them just a little bit of attention, you see huge changes in them. They’re all good kids but you need to find it within them.”
Ontario was also well represented in the camp including Martin Lebed from Plast Toronto and Roman Grod from CYM Mississauga. Martin came to the camp because he likes spending time with children and although he didn’t know what to expect at first and was a bit overwhelmed in the beginning, he “got to know the new kids and they behave a lot better than the kids in Canada.” Roman Grod heard about the camp from his father and says that the experience here was very good. The kids “appreciate things a lot more here and you have a stronger relationship with them.” One of his favourite moments, for example, was roasting marshmallows at night because the kids have never done this before.
The HUHTC Camp has had an impact on thousands of lives. Not only has the camp had a physical impact in Vorokhta which has had to accommodate growing tourism but has also had a human impact on the people involved: from the kitchen staff to the councillors from both Ukraine and overseas and the kids themselves. This amazing camp however, is not self-sustaining, but with the continued help of the international community, it can help influence, impact and inspire generations of Ukrainian children who otherwise feel unwelcome, unwanted and silenced.
Larysa Zariczniak
The camp began in 1996 and as Ruslana Wrzesnewskyj, the creator and former director of the camp stated, it has always been based on life-skills and the principles of a Plast camp “but more lenient because these were orphaned kids.” The camp expanded from 110 children in 1996 to its largest ever at over 500 in 2009. At first, “nobody spoke Ukrainian” but Ruslana soon realized that “there was a real need for this camp” since many children needed to learn the life-skills being taught, “they learn leadership skills – based on positive reinforcement and a lot of love.”
Ruslana acknowledges that it has not been an easy experience. The first camp was run-down and the old Soviet system in the town was still very much in place. “There was nothing in town, nothing!” She had to drive into Yaremche for supplies and in that first year, everyone including the foreigners needed to be registered with the authorities. During Kuchma’s time in office, the camp was raided by the Berkut. She admits that, at times, “it was a horror story.” She also concedes that the camp did get some troubled and tough youths that needed to be sent home for breaking the rules. However, this camp is no different from any in Canada – kids are taught to respect their own property and the property of others.
Ruslana confesses that the entire experience for her has been a “life-changer, it changes everyone’s perspective on life.” The program has grown from humanitarian aid to camps to scholarships to HIV/AIDs and human trafficking awareness to now psychological help for children affected by the different crises that have occurred in Ukraine. Some of her former campers and councillors have been killed either on the Maidan or on the front-lines in Ukraine’s war with Russia. And with a saddened smile, Ruslana muses that hurts deeply “when we lose them because they’re our friends.” But overall, she’s happy that she did something – “no regrets!” The kids here not only develop “a consciousness, develop an identity, but they also realize there’s someone out there that cares for them,” she concludes.
The camp program tries to build skills that kids will need in their everyday lives but also tries to bring out their hidden talents. This year, for example, one of the many international volunteers is Greg Selinger, a break-dancer from Montreal. Here, he is known as “Hryts” and only learned about the situation in Ukraine over a Skype conversation with a friend. He states that “it’s easier than I thought, I thought it was going to be more emotionally draining since the kids are coming from broken families and lost their families in the war or taken away from their mothers…I really thought I would have a difficult time coping but the kids are so emotionally excited and happy to have the tiniest bit of attention and appreciation and encouragement and the kids really latch on to the councillors”. He has taught not only fully-abled children to express themselves through dance but in the camp’s annual concert, several disabled kids performed dance moves that were inspired by what Greg has taught them. Overall, he admits “it will be hard to leave and not come back” to the camp next year.
Other international volunteers include many Canadians from across the country and from different youth groups. Marnie Howlett is from Saskatoon and this is her second year at the camp. And even though she isn’t fluent in Ukrainian she believes that “you don’t need to speak the language but you just need to hang out with the kids.” All the kids leave a lasting impression. For Marnie, for example, some of her children from last year were evacuated from Mariupol during the year and she helped raise money for them in Saskatoon. Marnie continues, “the kids are awesome…giving them just a little bit of attention, you see huge changes in them. They’re all good kids but you need to find it within them.”
