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3rd Ecumenical Social Week “Trust. Responsibility. Philanthropy” was held in Lviv.

2010-12-13 18:45

This year’s coordinator of the ESW was Iryna Kitura (pictured), Master of social work, who has a lot of experience in realizating of social projects.

Various events of the 3rd ESW were visited by around 3,000 people. The honorary guests of the 3rd ESW were Martin Reiser, Head of the Representative Office of the World Bank in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, G. Daniel Caron, Ambassador of Canada to Ukraine, Bernard Chenevez, Vice-President of Social Weeks of France, Kateryna Yushchenko, Head of the Supervisory Council of ICF “Ukraine 3000”, Mark Hardy, Director of Non-Profit Administrative Programs of the Notre Dame University (USA), Romen Huet, Department of Ethics at Lille Catholic University (France), Archbishop Ivan Yurkovych, apostolic nuncio in Ukraine, Helen Zordrager, pastor, advisor on European issues at the Department of Protestant Church Mission in the Netherlands and others.

Among the results of this year’s event was establishing the national network of ESW; after the meeting of the National Council of the ESW on October 5, 2010, partners from ten Ukrainian cities signed an agreement of partnership with the headquarters of the ESW in Lviv, and now they will be expanding the practical experience of constructive interdenominational dialogue and cooperation within the framework of the ESW in Ukraine.

The council of experts of ESW supported the bill “On public organizations”; a plenary meeting “Efficient legislation as a foundation for development of civil society,” during which new legislative initiative were presented and suggested for discussion. A conclusion and recommendations on the amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine were drawn.

After the conference and round table discussions, resolutions were adopted and plans for future cooperation between institutions and participating organizations of the ESW were outlined.

Also, a new project of the Institute of Ecumenical Studies of the UCU “The observatory of successful ecumenical, solidary and philanthropic initiatives” was presented at the forum.

Besides round tables and conferences, a number of cultural and artistic events were held: a concert of chorus singing, a performance by people with special needs, a concert in the Maria Zankovetska Drama Theatre with Ukrainian and foreign participants, and a movie “Three histories of Galicia” by a Ukrainian Olha Onyshko and Sara Arhat of Lebanon about experiences of tragic events and reconciliation of Ukrainians, Poles and Jews.

The event also included the 10th poetic meeting of people with special needs, the 4th international festival of family art “Berehynya,” an exhibition and seminar “Children and icons” of Mariya Pavelko from an icon painting school “Heaven on earth,” the city of Mykolaiv, an exhibition and seminar “Forgotten world” presented by Johan Schmidt and Manfred Schwarz, the Library of Peace dedicated to victims of totalitarian regimes, a fair of social organizations, etc.

This year’s ESW suggested for discussions lots of urgent issues of today and again emphasized its significance in Ukraine.