This year’s edition of the initiative is now getting under way. Twenty residents of Bolesławiec will take part, including members of the Society of Friends of Lviv and the South-Eastern Borderlands and students from Bolesławiec schools: the Henryk Sucharski Complex of General and Vocational Schools, Municipal Gymnasium No. 2, Municipal Gymnasium No. 4 and the Public Gymnasium of the Piarist Order (the gymnasium students from the latter are supporters of Zagłębie Lubin; local supporters of the “Copper” team have been strongly supporting the activities of Barbara Smoleńska, the initiative’s coordinator on behalf of the Complex of General and Vocational Schools), as well as two history teachers. The departure is on July 2. The Bolesławiec residents will spend 10 days in Ukraine.
The expedition to the Eastern Borderlands was supported, among others, by the Municipality of Bolesławiec, represented by the Mayor of the City Piotr Roman (a subsidy of PLN 2,000), and the Bliżej Serca Foundation (which financed the stay of three students). The municipal companies PWiK and MZGK and the “Widok” Wholesale Company donated work tools.
The participants in the initiative also raised money for this purpose themselves. “The residents helped us a great deal,” emphasizes Barbara Smoleńska. Within one day, PLN 2,179 was collected at the Church of Christ the King, and PLN 1,100 at the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Students collected smaller amounts at their schools and parishes. All the money raised by the young people was paid into the account of the initiative’s main organizer, the Studio Wschód Foundation, represented by TVP Wrocław editor Grażyna Orłowska-Sondej. The Foundation is covering the costs of transport and accommodation in Ukraine from the funds collected. “Despite the considerable support from Bolesławiec residents, we would not have been able to finance our group’s stay in the Eastern Borderlands ourselves. It is thanks to the help of residents of all Lower Silesia that volunteers, including those from Bolesławiec, can go and care for the graves of their ancestors,” emphasizes Barbara Smoleńska.
The expedition promises to be truly intensive. Participants in the “Save the Grave of Your Great-Grandfather from Oblivion” initiative will save the cemeteries in Sieniawa and Yazlovets, at the request of the Immaculate Conception sisters. They will also visit Lviv, Zarvanytsia—the center of Marian devotion among Greek Catholics—Buchach, Trybuchowce, Kamianets-Podilskyi and Khotyn. What is more, they will meet with the mayor of Zbarazh and take part in a service for those murdered in Kolodno.
They will stay with friends’ families in Zbarazh. “They cannot wait for our arrival,” says B. Smoleńska. “More than 1,000 people from across Lower Silesia will take part in the initiative. In Ukraine, they joke that for these 10 days the Eastern Borderlands are Polish again.”
We will return to this subject.