Last Tuesday US First Lady Laura Bush spent the whole day with her Ukrainian counterpart Kateryna Yushchenko. Mrs. Bush had a different program from her husband’s, and the Bushes were together only for the end of their visit to Kyiv, when they met to honor the memory of victims of the 1932-33 Holodomor.
At the beginning of their official meeting, the two presidents’ wives visited the National Taras Shevchenko Museum in Kyiv. Mrs. Bush examined the displays in the main halls of the university museum. According to the museum’s chief curator Yulia Shelenko, during the tour of the museum the US First Lady was given a number of souvenirs, including an exclusive small-circulation edition of The Kobzar in Ukrainian, a photo album, and a booklet about the museum. Natalia Klymenko, the director of the museum, said that during the 30-minute visit she “tried to explain to Laura Bush what Taras Shevchenko means to Ukrainians.” She added that she hopes the US president’s wife “knows something about the Ukrainian poet because there is a monument to him in Washington.”
After visiting the museum, the first ladies of the US and Ukraine attended the opening of the new building of the Ukrainian branch of the Peace Corps. Two volunteer projects were launched during the ceremony. An American volunteer named Andrea Mason, who is now living in the village of Hrytsiv, in Khmelnytsky oblast, showed the distinguished visitors some crafts made by the gifted villagers with whom she is working as a member of her Peace Corps project. Andrea was noticeably emotional during the ceremony, but she managed to impress Mrs. Bush with a variety of Ukrainian embroidered shirts, a pearl necklace, painted pottery, and photographs of the village. The volunteer said that when her two-year volunteer term expires, she will try to stay on in the village and continue working on the project.
Another volunteer, Anna Frumes, showed off the handicrafts made by a group of Crimean Tatars whom she helped open their own folk crafts store. The Peace Corps volunteers presented Mrs. Bush with a number of keepsakes, including a ceramic dish, an embroidered blouse, and hand-made postcards.
The Peace Corps has been working in Ukraine for about 15 years and now numbers 342 volunteers, who are helping to develop rural tourism, distribute information about HIV/AIDS, teach English to young people, and provide assistance on starting up businesses.
As a leader of the women’s health movement in the US and worldwide, Laura Bush gladly attended a tea party with some Ukrainian activists, who are working on breast cancer prevention and a group of cancer survivors.
During the meeting Halyna Nesteruk, senior instructor of the Susan Komen Global Initiative, who is in charge of informing the Ukrainian public about breast cancer, said that the incidence rate in Ukraine is much lower than in Eastern Europe and the US. According to her statistics, 16,000 women contract breast cancer every year in Ukraine, of which 7,000 women die from the disease. Mrs. Yushchenko asked if the low incidence rate, compared to Western countries, is the result of an ineffective diagnostic system. But Ms. Nesteruk explained that, in spite of a number of problems connected to diagnostics, the trend is attributed more to a healthier lifestyle in Ukraine. Some activists told Mrs. Bush stories about their illness and recovery. The US First Lady noted that breast cancer is a worldwide problem.
Then the First Ladies reunited with their husbands and together laid flowers at the memorial to Holodomor victims. As the presidents and their wives were approaching the memorial, boys and girls dressed in Ukrainian national costumes handed them flower arrangements decorated with remembrance candles and stalks of wheat. The two presidential couples laid the flowers at the monument and honored the memory of Holodomor victims with a minute of silence, as bells were tolling.
The memorial on St. Michael’s Square was fenced in by red-and-black screens shaped like a square maze. Surrounding the memorial were white angels symbolizing the souls of the dead.
