Sebastopol World Friends to Host Ukrainian Delegation on November 14
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| A group of five Ukrainian professionals, and their program facilitator, will be visiting Sebastopol from November 7 th – November 22nd. They are part of Open World, a U.S. Congressionally sponsored program that brings people from former Soviet and developing nations to the United States to experience open governance and focus study on a variety of topics that have relevance to issues in their own country. The topic focus for this group is “Developing Child and Family Counseling Networks” and “Children’s Services in Times of War”. During their stay this delegation will be meeting with a variety of individuals and organizations that are providers of human service as well as elected officials including Sebastopol City Council members, State Senator Mike McGuire, and U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman. They will also have some time to spend seeing and experiencing the beauty of Sonoma County and San Francisco. Their visit here is coordinated by Sebastopol World Friends, a volunteer organization which manages activities with Sebastopol’s two sister cities- Takeo, Japan and Chyhyryn, Ukraine. They will stay with local families while they are here. One of the delegates is from Chyhyryn and another is from Cherkasy, Santa Rosa’s sister city. The delegates are: Olena Heivan-Lobova – Special education resource specialist with the City of Chyhyryn. Rusana Sharlai – President of Poruch NGO which provides a wide variety of social service resources for children and families who are displaced by the war in Ukraine or are victims of abuse. Snishana Dudnyk – Special education teacher with the City of Cherkasy. Lillia Lypova – An advisor to a Member of Parliament in Ukraine regarding justice, education, social policy, and security. Liudmyla Kubatko – A professional development specialist with EdCamp Ukraine, a country wide special education program. The delegates will make a Community presentation regarding their professional lives in Ukraine and their initial impressions of their U.S. visit on November 14 th , 7-9pm at the Sebastopol Grange Hall. There is no charge for this event and all are welcome. |