A Ukrainian Get-together in Artemivsk

Displaced persons and local residents of the city of Artemivsk attended a “Ukrainian Get-together” festival. The meeting was organized in the premises of Horlivka Institute of Foreign Languages to become the first cultural and entertainment event after the school’s evacuation from Horlivka to Artemivsk. The first- and fourth-year students along with the professors from the Ukrainian philology department organized a music show. The audience couldn’t stop applauding during the students’ performance: all those present sang along Ukrainian folk and modern original songs. The professors also surprised the audience with their singing, while a medley of modern remixes of folk tunes and Taras Shevchenko verses, performed by the fourth-year students, became a true hit with spectators. The guests cheerfully participated in different competitions. They tried to guess Ukrainian folk songs from the first notes, and after “solving the puzzle” they finished these songs familiar from childhood. The audience met the students’ poetic humoresques with great interest and laughter, and eventually one of the oldest guests – Ms. N. Tarasova – could not resist herself and read three more humorous stories. “This was so great that you invited me! Very interesting and lovely, especially if compared to my everyday life. It was truly refreshing for my heart and soul”, admitted Ms. L. Kopyl, an IDP from Luhansk. The first-year students obtained valuable experience in organizing mass events and got to know their older counterparts and teachers better. As they put it, “It was our first show, and we were quite nervous and exited, but it was fantastic! And we did not know that our teachers were great singers”. The event continued with a tea party. Local residents and displaced persons who attended the event shared their stories, discussed plans and declaimed original poems. At the end of gathering all students who have been actively involved in organizing the event, received modern English-Ukrainian dictionaries, wreaths and traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirts, and guests received books of popular contemporary Ukrainian authors. The event was initiated by the activists of IDP community of Artemivsk, and supported by the “Advocacy, Protection and Legal Assistance to the Internally Displaced Population of Ukraine” project, implemented by the Danish Refugee Council in partnership with All-Ukrainian CF “Right to Protection” with the support of the UN Refugee Agency.