For almost a month, 18 children of our defenders who were killed or went missing spent time in Seattle, Washington (USA). The children lived in Ukrainian-speaking families, celebrated American Independence Day with them, visited Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, visited Boeing aircraft production and the Boeing Aviation Museum, visited the Space Needle and Amazon, which presented them with backpacks and MacBook Pro laptops. And today, together with their parents, the children visited Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi and shared their impressions of what they had seen. The trip was organized thanks to a trilateral memorandum of cooperation between the Lviv City Council, the Hosanna Church of Lviv, and the American NGO Together Ministry.
“The children lived mostly in Ukrainian-speaking families. In almost 4 weeks, everyone managed to make friends. These families are ready to keep in touch with them. I watched several videos of the farewell and was very moved,” said Dmytro Kolesnyk, pastor of Hosanna Church.
Download photoThe children flew to Seattle from Warsaw on June 27. Ukrainian-speaking families met them at the airport. The teenagers spent the first week with these families: they celebrated American Independence Day together, had a rest, and socialized. In general, each family prepared a recreation program for the children at their own discretion. The next week the teenagers spent at a Christian camp in the mountains of Anacortes and visited the Microsoft headquarters in Redmond.
The third week was full of excursions.
“First, we met with the mayor of Gig Harbor, visited a police station and a fire station. Then we visited the Boeing airplane production facility and the Boeing Aviation Museum. In Seattle, they rode the Ferris wheel, visited the Space Needle and Amazon, where Ukrainians also work. All the children received backpacks and MacBook Pros as gifts from the company. They had a meeting with the secretariat of the Olympia Capitol and met the governor and his wife. We also visited the local softball and hockey arenas and climbed Mount Rainier,” the teenagers said.
“America is a land of opportunity. No matter what idea you have, in America you will find the resources to realize it.
I am glad that you liked it. And if you have the opportunity in your life, I definitely recommend you to study in America for one or two years and get a higher education there. It will be very cool. Higher education is very good there,” said Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.