28.04.2023
Working trip of the President of the Foundation to France
Before the war, Paris was often perceived by many as the mecca of romantic vacation for all lovers. After February 24, 2022, France, along with other European countries, came to the defense of Ukrainian independence, joining the political coalition to contain Putin. It supports Ukraine with weapons, humanitarian aid and, of course, sets the tone for the discussion about the future post-war reconstruction of our country.
That is why contacts and dialogue with French colleagues and volunteers have become an integral part of many volunteer initiatives in Ukraine.
“Modern Ukraine” is also not an exception in this regard. Therefore, in order to solve current work issues, as well as to expand the front of assistance to Ukraine, the President of the Foundation Volodymyr Gavrish was in France the other day on a working trip.
In particular, the head of the Foundation met with famous muralists Julien Mallan and Volodymyr Manzhos. Volodymyr Gavrysh thanked the former for his participation in the implementation of the For Kids Ua project, which the Foundation implements to support children affected by the war in Ukraine.
A limited series of stamps depicting the mural of Julien -«Ukraine in action», was sold in a matter of hours, which allowed to collect more than 800,000 hryvnias to support Ukrainian children.
Also, the French muralist agreed to implement another joint initiative with the Foundation, which will involve the creation of two patriotic murals in Dnipro and Kherson.
At the same time, I managed to meet with Volodymyr Manzhos in France for a reason. After all, it was during these days that his personal exhibition opened in Paris. And although it was accompanied by a rich program of parallel meetings and communication with fans, the artist still found time to discuss volunteer workdays.
In particular, in cooperation with the Foundation and several other muralists, Volodymyr Manzhos is currently working on the possibility of creating a mural in support of Ukraine in Georgia.
In addition, within the framework of the second stage of the For Kids Ua project, the start of a charity sale of stamps with the image of the artist’s mural: “Time of change: victory” will be announced in the coming days. He was generated with the support of “Modern Ukraine” in October 2022 in Kyiv.
Also during the period of his stay in France, together with Volodymyr Manzhos, Julien Mallan and Anton Likarenko, a member of the Honorary Board of the Foundation, Volodymyr Havrysh visited the Embassy of Ukraine in France.
It was possible to discuss with the Ukrainian diplomats the prospects of future cooperation, as well as the implementation of the innovative project of modern Ukrainian digital artists, which is planned to be presented in Paris later.
Another friendly meeting was the final accordion of the trip. We are talking about French firefighters who in the spring of 2022 responded to the call of the Foundation about the need for help and personally delivered clothes, shoes, ammunition and medical consumables for Kharkiv rescuers to the border with Ukraine.
After visiting them, Volodymyr Gavrish expressed his personal gratitude to the French rescuers and emphasized the historical importance of their help in preserving the stability of the country in the first months of the war.
“Thank you for your kind heart and sincere stance of solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Today, each of us is a rescuer. Because at stake is the preservation of not only the home called Ukraine, but also the security of the whole of Europe,” Volodymyr Havrysh remarked emotionally.
Also, in the end, he added that all the plans planned as part of the working trip are an important component of cultural diplomacy implemented by the Foundation to promote Ukrainian interests in the world and attract as many partners and donor aid as possible to support the affected population.
We will remind Recently we wrote about the fact that the efforts of “Modern Ukraine” volunteers were recognized at the international level.