Guest Speakers Educate IHMS Students on Holodomor

The first slide in Valentina Noseworthy’s PowerPoint presentation

 

 

Manitoba’s Holodomor memorial  “Holodomor” is the name given to the genocide by famine that occurred in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933. As many as 10 million Ukrainians perished as victims of a man-made famine under Joseph Stalin’s regime, with 25,000 dying each day at the peak of the famine. The name Holodomor is the Ukrainian word for “plague of hunger”, or “death inflicted by starvation” derived from two words, “holod” – which means starvation or famine and “moryty” – which meansto inflict death.

 

On Thursday, November 17, IHMS invited two  very special guests to educate the grade 1-8 students about the Holodomor of 1932-33. The two guest speakers were Valentina Noseworthy (who spoke to the grade 5-8 students in two separate sessions) and Irka Balan (who did the same thing with the grade 1-4 students in two separate sessions).

 

Irka Balan making her presentation to the grade 1-4 students

 

The Holodomor is obviously a very sensitive and disturbing topic for the Ukrainian community. Even today, 83 years later, there are Ukrainians for whom the Holodomor is still a painful living memory. Many other Ukrainians have a personal connection with friends and relatives who either survived or perished in this man-made genocide. For example, one of the guest speakers,Valentina Noseworthy, noted that both her parents survived the Holodomor.

 

Valentina Noseworthy making her presentation to the grade 5-8 students

 

Despite the difficulties of addressing this emotionally charged topic, the guest speakers used great sensitivity and respect to both educate the students and honour the legacy of victims of the Holodomor.

 

Examples of some of the artwork about the Holodomor that the students interpreted

 

The students learned some very important historical information about their ancestral homeland, including the sacredness of bread and the wheat used to make it, The students also came away with a better understanding of how, despite the terrible nature of this man-made disaster, love overcomes hate!

 

At the end of the presentation, every student was given a freshly baked bun from Gunn’s Bakery