Category: News

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As the Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) prepares to mark a milestone year, we announce a leadership transition following our Annual General Meeting on June 7.

After 12 years of dedicated leadership at CUF — including serving as both President and, most recently, Chair — Victor Hetmanczuk is retiring from our Board of Directors. His tenure has been defined by steadfast dedication to Ukraine and its people, and by his deep commitment to the Ukrainian Canadian community.

Under Victor’s leadership, CUF has evolved into a nationally respected and internationally recognized organization—one that responds effectively to urgent crises while also investing in long-term recovery and resilience. Among his most impactful contributions was the joint launch of the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal (UHA) in January 2022, in partnership with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Created in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the UHA has become one of the most trusted Canadian-led humanitarian initiatives for Ukraine. It has mobilized critical aid—including emergency medical supplies, food, shelter, mental health support, and assistance for displaced persons in both Europe and across Canada.

Victor’s decades-long commitment to Ukraine and its diaspora communities has been defined by collaboration, compassion, and a results-driven approach to humanitarian work. His guidance has been instrumental in fostering partnerships with local and international organizations, ensuring that aid reaches those in greatest need—swiftly and efficiently.

“It has been the honour of my life to serve as Chair of the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved together in support of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Canadian community. As I pass the torch and make way for new leadership, I do so with full confidence in the strength of our Board and CUF’s future.

To my successor, Andrij Maleckyj, I offer my heartfelt congratulations. You are stepping into a role filled with purpose and promise, and I am certain you will lead with integrity, vision, and compassion.”

— Victor Hetmanczuk

CUF is pleased to announce that Andrij Maleckyj, a Board Member since 2022, has assumed the role of Chair, effective June 7.

“Please join the CUF Board in congratulating Andrij Maleckyj on his appointment as Chair. He brings to the role extensive financial expertise, a steadfast commitment to our mission, and a clear vision for our organization’s future. We look forward to working under his leadership as we continue to advance our goals and serve the Ukrainian community at home and abroad.”

— Ann Semotiuk, Chair, Governance Committee

Andrij Maleckyj is a Toronto native with degrees in economics from the University of Toronto and Queen’s University, and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. His career spans senior roles in treasury and investment banking at Merrill Lynch in New York, London, and Toronto, and later at Brookfield Asset Management. Now retired, he is also a member of CUF’s Steering Committee for Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine.

“As we mark this leadership transition during Canada-Ukraine Foundation’s 30th anniversary year, we do so with gratitude for the foundation built by Victor Hetmanczuk and optimism for what’s to come. On behalf of our entire team, we thank Victor for his leadership, tireless dedication, and unwavering service that has had a profound impact on CUF—and on the lives of countless Ukrainians. It will be felt for many years.

We are feeling energized to continue to work alongside Andrij Maleckyj in his new role as Chair of the Board as we advance CUF’s vital mission.”

— Valeriy Kostyuk, Executive Director, Canada-Ukraine Foundation

Temerty Foundation Donation Matching Ends at Midnight

Until midnight, every dollar you give will be matched by the Temerty Foundation, up to $100,000—doubling the life-saving support for Ukrainian children who urgently need our help. Children like Dayana. 

In a so-called “rest camp” in temporarily occupied Crimea, 14-year-old Dayana watched as Russian officials systematically tried to break her little brother Nikita’s spirit. After standing up to pro-Russian teens, he was falsely accused of a mental illness and sent to a psychiatric hospital where he was drugged without consent. Without explanation. Without his family’s knowledge. 

Meanwhile, Dayana was forced to sing the Russian anthem daily. Russian textbooks replaced Ukrainian ones. Russian documents were prepared for every child—a paper trail designed to make them vanish from Ukraine entirely.

Through discreet communication channel, Dayana was able to reach Save Ukraine. That single contact became a lifeline that brought her and her siblings home—before Russia could complete the erasure of their identities. 

Today, Dayana attends college in Kyiv. She dreams of traveling the world. Most importantly, she shares her story so the world knows what Ukrainian children endure. 

Dayana escaped because donors understood the urgency of her situation. Other children wait in camps, detention centers, and foster homes across temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories and within Russia. At midnight, this matching opportunity ends. But today, your compassion can reach twice as many children like Dayana. In these final hours, every $50 becomes $100, and every $100 becomes $200 of life-saving support. Your donation doesn’t just help—it helps twice as much. 

The time to double your impact is running out.

The need is real. 

Help us bring more Ukrainian children home.

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Our new address since May 30

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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About us

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

Thank you, Canada! 

In just 24 hours, you have helped raise over $30,000. Thanks to the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, this amount will be doubled for our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign. This is what the Canadian spirit truly embodies.

Supporting rescue operations behind enemy lines is not an easy task. With the funds raised, complemented by the matching commitment, our partner, Save Ukraine, will be able to assist in the return of six more children from Russian captivity. However, thousands more children need help.

With just 48 hours left, you can help us get closer to our $100,000 goal. 

Be on the right side of history and be a part of a child’s story of homecoming and recovery.

With immense gratitude, 

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation team

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Our new address since May 30

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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About us

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

What if today, on the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression, you could save a child’s life?

From June 4-6, each donation to our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Temerty Foundation, up to $100,000—doubling your impact for Ukraine’s vulnerable children.

Sixteen-year-old Dmytro became an orphan when Russian forces tortured his father to death in the Kherson region. Occupiers abducted his father twice, beating him and subjecting him to electric shocks in a basement. They forced him to dig his own grave while mocking him. After extensive brain trauma from the torture, Dmytro’s father died at age 42. All alone, under occupation and being split by the front line from the rest of his family, his aunt on the Ukrainian-controlled territory reached out to Save Ukraine.

Through donor-supported rescue efforts funded by the generosity of Canadians, Dmytro is safe after a complex evacuation operation to bring him out of occupation. Now, Dmytro is going through rehabilitation to overcome the trauma caused by Russia’s brutal aggression. 

Since Russia’s war began, more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly abducted. Through our partnership with Save Ukraine and the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, we have already rescued 12 children and provided hundreds more with rehabilitation. 

Save Ukraine leads courageous rescue missions, each carefully planned with absolute discretion. Young survivors receive comprehensive support to heal and rebuild their lives. 

“Through our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign, we’re helping restore what was stolen—family, identity, and the right to grow up in peace,” says Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz, Chair of the Civil Society Committee at the Canada-Ukraine Foundation. “With the Temerty Foundation’s support, your donation will go twice as far.”

For the next 72 hours, your generosity has double the power. When you donate before midnight June 6, every $50 becomes $100, and every $100 becomes $200 of life-saving support.

Every child deserves safety, love, and a future. 

Will you help bring Ukraine’s children home?

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Our new address since May 30

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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About us

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

How Your Support Transforms Fear into Hope

In Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories, children are being systematically stripped of their identities, forced into military training, and psychologically manipulated to forget they are Ukrainian—which is exactly why our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign exists.

Maria, 17 years old, faced her nightmare when Russian soldiers from the National Guard stormed into her classroom, assault rifles in hand. “Try, show what you know,” they commanded, forcing Maria and her classmates to assemble and disassemble the very weapons being used to destroy their homeland. The soldiers informed them that any of them could be drafted and sent to war.

What followed was a relentless campaign to erase Maria’s identity. Seven times a month, mandatory militarization sessions were led by Russian soldiers to train Ukrainian children. Propaganda videos, military rations, forced songs praising Russia—this became daily life. Even first-graders were enlisted into their “Youth Army” program, being filmed during ceremonies and made to salute a future they hadn’t chosen.

Maria witnessed how manipulation worked. One of her classmates was deceived into signing a military contract at 16. His fate remains unknown. When Maria dared to plan her escape, Russian authorities interrogated her and threatened her family.

Thanks to Save Ukraine’s rescue network—supported by donors like you—Maria is now safe. Using discreet communication channels and a complex, clandestine network, Save Ukraine coordinated her evacuation from occupation. Now, Maria’s trauma has given rise to a powerful purpose: she dreams of studying law to defend human rights.

Through our partnership with Save Ukraine and the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, we have already helped rescue 12 children from Russian captivity. But thousands are still waiting. Approximately 19,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russia since 2022. When you donate before June 23, you fund more rescue operations, trauma care, and the chance for children to reclaim their future.

Help us turn fear into strength. Help more children like Maria not only survive—but rise.

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Our new address since May 30

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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About us

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

This past weekend, Russia launched multiple missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, killing at least three innocent children. Russia has stolen a future from these innocent children who had their whole life ahead of them. Throughout this brutal war, we repeatedly see how Russia targets Ukrainian children, either through abduction or by conducting missile attacks on infrastructure that provides lifesaving support to children taking their first steps towards their future.

Two-year-old Viktoriia took her first steps not at home into her mother’s arms, but in the oncology ward of Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has cancer. For eight months, this tiny warrior has called the Ohmatdyt home, enduring nine rounds of chemotherapy and 28 days of radiation. Six more months of treatment lie ahead.

In those sterile halls where children shouldn’t have to learn to walk, Viktoriia also spoke her first words, made her first friends, and took those precious first steps. Last year, Russian bombs deliberately targeted Ohmatdyt, the very place where children like Victoriia fight for their lives. They attacked hope itself. Yet Ohmatdyt rebuilt. The doctors returned. And the children continue their battles.

Thanks to your support, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, through the CUF-UCC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal and with the help of Tabletochki Foundation, provided essential medical supplies for 155 children at Ohmatdyt, including Viktoriia. Your generosity helped keep their treatments going. Every IV line, every medication, every piece of equipment funded by donors like you becomes a lifeline for children who should be playing in parks, not fighting for survival in hospital wards.

Ukrainian children face battles on many fronts —some rescued from captivity, others fighting cancer. Every one of them deserves a chance.

Viktoriia’s tiny steps represent the courage of all Ukrainian children refusing to give up. When you give to this campaign, you don’t just fund rescue operations—you help ensure hospitals like Ohmatdyt can continue saving lives. You help children like Viktoriia focus on walking forward, instead of worrying if help will come. Every child deserves to take their first steps in safety. Every child deserves a future filled with hope instead of fear.

Our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign runs until June 23rd. Will you help support essential lifesaving programs for children like Viktoriia—and thousands of other Ukrainian children?

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We’re moving!

As of May 30, our new address will be:

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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Background

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

How your support saves young lives

Every Child Deserves a Future campaign—running until June 23rd—exists to change the lives of Ukrainian children and adolescents abducted by Russia. With your support and through strategic partnerships, we are funding rescue missions, providing medical and psychological care, and rehabilitation to teens like Denys.

At 16, Denys was living in Kherson, managing type 1 diabetes and being highly insulin-dependent, when Russian soldiers took him and his classmates to a so-called “recreational camp” in Crimea. There, his life-sustaining insulin needs were ignored. He was hospitalized for weeks in critical condition, then moved again—alone, afraid, and far from his family.

Desperate, Denys courageously reached out to our partner, Save Ukraine, through their website. Thanks to donor-funded rescue efforts facilitated through the robust lifesaving network beyond enemy lines, Denys was identified, located, and brought to safety and hospitalized immediately. Today, Denys lives at the Center for Hope and Recovery, receiving the care, stability, and support every child deserves.

Since 2022, an estimated 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcefully abducted by Russia. Many more live under occupation, separated from their families. Thanks to our partnership with Save Ukraine, founded by Mykola Kuleba, former Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Ukraine, as well as the Temerty Foundation’s generosity, we’ve funded rescue missions to bring 12 children home from Russian captivity.

Since 2014, Save Ukraine has rescued families from frontline areas, and since 2022, has led daring missions to retrieve children from occupied territories and Russia itself. Their work turns impossible situations into powerful stories of reunion and recovery.

Denys survived because someone like you cared enough to act.

Now, others like him need the same chance.

Help us bring more children home. Donate to Every Child Deserves a Future before June 23rd. Because behind every number is a child—with dreams, potential, and the right to live free and safe.

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We’re moving!

As of May 30, our new address will be:

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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Background

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

Your Support Creates Sanctuaries of Hope

In the heart of Ukraine’s ongoing crisis, there exists a place whose name embodies its mission: Misto Dobra—the City of Goodness. This sanctuary represents exactly what your support of our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign makes possible: a haven where vulnerable children and their mothers find safety, healing, and hope amid unimaginable circumstances. Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine has left countless families without homes, stability, or access to essential services.

Through our partnership with Misto Dobra, your generosity created a lifeline for 325 individuals this past winter, including mothers with children who lost everything in the war, orphaned children, and children battling severe illnesses who require specialized care.

The winter months brought particular challenges, with power outages threatening the continuity of critical medical services for children with severe diagnoses. Your support allowed the shelter to pay their power bills and purchase enough diesel to keep generators running, maintaining heat, electricity, and the operation of Misto Dobra’s medical center during the coldest days.

With your generosity, their medical team managed to procure vital medicines for the children in rehabilitation and palliative care. They were able to purchase essential nutritious foods—meats, cheeses, grains, vegetables, and fruits—providing balanced meals for families during their most vulnerable time. The shelter’s team secured hygiene supplies including toilet paper, towels, wet wipes, garbage bags, laundry detergent, and adult diapers, ensuring dignity and cleanliness for families rebuilding their lives. Beyond the physical necessities of medicine, food, and hygiene supplies, your contributions provided something equally vital: the assurance that these children and their families have not been forgotten. 

Your donation to our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign, running until June 23rd, strengthens these sanctuaries and extends their reach. It ensures that when a child arrives—whether returning from forced displacement in Russia or fleeing violence within Ukraine—they enter a space where healing can begin, and dreams can gradually be rekindled. 

Will you stand with Ukraine’s children today by making a donation?

Your support transforms uncertainty into security, trauma into healing, and despair into hope—one child at a time.

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We’re moving!

As of May 30, our new address will be:

Canada-Ukraine Foundation

30 Powerhouse St., Suite 101

Toronto, Ontario M6H 0C6

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Background

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation invites you to join our Every Child Deserves a Future campaign, running through June 23rd, with the support of Chantal Kreviazuk, an Indigenous and Canadian-Ukrainian singer-songwriter. Together, we are dedicated to providing comprehensive support to Ukrainian children impacted by Russia’s violent war and forced abductions, including psychological care and specialized rescue efforts. Each child has a story, a family who misses them, and a cultural heritage that deserves to be preserved. These innocent children face systematic attempts by Russia to erase their Ukrainian identity, language, and culture.

For these children, each day away from home means time lost with loved ones and a disconnection from their roots. They find themselves in unfamiliar surroundings, often pressured to forget their language, traditions, and even their names. Behind each statistic is a child whose childhood has been interrupted—a reality that Chantal understands through a uniquely personal lens: “My Métis grandmother was guarded about her family’s heritage due to the history of scooping children with Indigenous backgrounds.” 

Through our partnership with Save Ukraine, the generosity of the Temerty Foundation, and the compassion of supporters like you, we’ve been able to help rescue 12 children from Russian captivity, bringing them back to their families in Ukraine. Hundreds more children have received rehabilitation support through our programs, beginning their journey of healing and cultural reconnection. Thousands are still waiting to come home, hoping that someone still remembers them.

Your contribution to our campaign helps fund the delicate work of locating and bringing children home, as well as other essential services to support the young children who have witnessed the horrors of this invasion. Your generosity helps provide reintegration assistance as they rebuild their sense of identity and belonging. It supports the psychological care these children need after experiencing heavy trauma. These services create a foundation for healing. When a child returns to Ukraine, they reclaim not just their physical home, but their sense of self and belonging. In Chantal’s words, “A donation to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation will help rescue these children and give them a chance to succeed. Because every child deserves a safe future.”

Will you help write a chapter of healing in a child’s life?

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Background

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.

The Urgent Mission to Rescue Ukraine’s Abducted Children

The Canada-Ukraine Foundation invites you to join our Every Child Deserves A Future campaign — a powerful opportunity to make a real difference in children’s lives. As we continue this vital initiative, we are proud to introduce our partner in this mission, Mykola Kuleba of Save Ukraine. Mykola Kuleba has dedicated the past 25 years of his life to protecting the rights of children in Ukraine. 

Since 2014, Save Ukraine has been rescuing families from frontline areas — often preventing occupation by helping people evacuate in time.

Since 2022, the team of Save Ukraine have been leading courageous missions to rescue children and their families from Russian-occupied territories and from Russia itself. The team works tirelessly on the ground, facing tremendous challenges to reunite families torn apart by war. Through your generous support, complemented by the Temerty Foundation, we have helped rescue 12 Ukrainian children who have not only been safely brought home but have begun their journey of recovery and reintegration.

The reality these children have faced is unimaginable. They have endured years under occupation: interrogations, threats, forced Russification, military training in schools, coerced service in the enemy’s army, and the constant fear of being drafted or taken to Russian institutions. Many were targeted specifically for their pro-Ukrainian stance. Some lost their parents, others their homes, freedom, and childhood. They have witnessed the brutality of war firsthand and carry these experiences with them.

Hundreds of thousands of children remain trapped in occupied territories and Russia. The Save Ukraine team is ready to bring them home — but they need our continued support to make these rescue missions possible. Your donation to our campaign provides the resources needed for rescue operations, psychological support, reintegration programs, and other essential services that help children build a future, free from fear. Canada has always been a reliable partner in supporting Ukraine through its darkest hours.

Together, we can do more for the future of these children!

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Background

Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) – founded in 1995, CUF has a strong track record of providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine in the areas of healthcare, education and civil society. CUF collaborates with aid providers in Ukraine, Canada, and beyond to maximize impact and cost-effectiveness of your support.