BCU Financial Group - Buduchnist CU is honoured to be a major sponsor of the Holodomor Memorial in Toronto. BCU CEO, Oksana Prociuk, the Board of Directors, and BCU staff proudly participated in the official unveiling of the Holodomor Memorial Parkette which took place on Sunday, October 21st on the grounds of Exhibition Place.
In a moving speech, 91-year-old Holodomor survivor, Mykola Latyshko, shared his recollection of the extreme hunger he experienced as a seven-year-old boy during the man-made Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Toronto Mayor, John Tory, and Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, spoke during the ceremony. First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Stepan Kubiv, delivered a personal greeting from Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko.
The Holodomor Memorial is a permanent memorial to the victims of the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and is also a place of reflection and remembrance for all who visit. The Ukrainian community has worked tirelessly for over 25 years to have this memorial installed in a very prominent location in Toronto where Canadians and international tourists are able to visit all year round to learn about the Holodomor and reflect on its tragedy.
Buduchnist Credit Union and BCU Foundation – through the Yurij Skripchinski Fund – are sponsors of the Memorial Renascence Garden with a combined donation of $100,000. The Dnipro Cultural Centre Oshawa Fund at BCU Foundation has also provided an additional donation of $10,000 towards this memorial project. The Renascence Garden is one of three millstone gardens of the Holodomor Memorial along with the Remembrance and Resilience Gardens.
The main feature of the Holodomor Memorial is the statue “Bitter Memory of Childhood” by Ukrainian sculptor, Petro Drozdowsky. The poignant life-size bronze statue of a hollow eyed, starving little girl holding a few stalks of wheat was made from the same cast as the original statue that stands near the entrance of the National Holodomor Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine. The statue is dedicated to the most vulnerable victims of starvation, the children of Ukraine.
BCU Financial Group is committed to support the on-going and future efforts of Holodomor awareness projects.
