Plast's world conference in Kyiv focuses on organization's development in Ukraine (11/23/03)

Plast's world conference in Kyiv focuses on organization's development in Ukraine

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Plast, the international Ukrainian scouting organization, held its 15th triennual world conference in Ukraine on October 29-November 2, during which it re-elected Lubomyr Romankiw as Nachalnyi Plastun and Yaroslava Rubel as the head of the Supreme Plast Bulava (command).

The world conference, known among Ukrainian scouts as a KUPO (an acronym for Conference of Ukrainian Plast Organizations), decided to increase cooperation among all the country organizations by developing an Internet web portal and in stimulating an exchange of educational and instructional materials among them.

During its second world conference ever in Ukraine, the KUPO continued to put the accent on developing and strengthening the Ukrainian country organization, which was revived here during the collapse of communism at the end of the 1980s and has now begun to develop strong roots. The 150 delegates and guests from four continents decided to put Plast-Ukraine on a path towards financial independence to bring it into line with Plast's policy in each of its eight other country organizations.

"In just a few years Plast has grown dramatically in Ukraine. The leadership here knows Plast's goals and knows what it needs to do," explained Mrs. Rubel.

Plast-Ukraine has grown in membership from zero to some 10,000 in the 15 years since it was reintroduced in Ukraine after a half-century absence. Originally begun in 1911 by Oleksander Tysovsky, an educator in Lviv, by 1917 the organization was active in most major cities of western and central Ukraine. After the Soviets asserted control over much of Ukraine, Plast membership was harshly discouraged and the organization soon disappeared from the central regions of Ukraine. It held out in the most western regions of Ukraine, however, until the late 1930s-going underground during the time of Polish rule - and was banned when that part of Ukraine was taken over by the USSR.

Today, Plast is flourishing once again in nearly all parts of the country. The organization has 120 separate local organizations in 22 of Ukraine's 25 oblasts, plus another 13 city organizations in the Crimean Autonomous Republic. Plast is now actively working to develop membership in the country's eastern, most Russified oblasts.

"As soon as we explain to the regional and local leaders the concept of scouting and what Plast is, and once they understand that we are not a political organization, there are few problems," said Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, one of the new generation of Ukrainian scouts who at age 24 is already a member of the Plast leadership in Ukraine and in charge of public relations.

Mr. Yurchyshyn explained that the biggest difference between government support for Plast in the eastern and western regions is that, while in Halychyna and central Ukraine local governments at times seek out Plast for support and cooperation in certain civic projects, in the eastern and southern oblasts there is less contact between the two.

"However, there is an exception," explained Mr. Yurchyshyn. "The city officials in Yevpatoria (Crimea) look at Plast very positively."

Ukraine's central government also has begun to give assistance, which should go a long way in helping the scouting organization achieve its objective of financial independence from its sister organizations around the world.

While the Ukrainian diaspora entirely financed the revival of the scouting organization in Ukraine and even only a few years ago continued to fund up to 90 percent of its work, the amount of direct resources from abroad should now begin to decrease as Plast-Ukraine begins to develop in-country sources.

This year the State Committee on Family and Youth responded positively to four of Plast's five project proposals and awarded the Ukrainian scouts 200,000 hr. (about $45,000) from its 2003 budget to support its organizational development, including its summer camps. It's not a whole lot of money, but a start.

Some of the money was used to fund Plast's three campgrounds in Ukraine: the historic Sokil campground in the Carpathian Mountains, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast; Chota Krylatykh, a camp specializing in extreme aerial sports, outside the city of Ivano-Frankivsk; and Krayova Novatska Oselia, a camp for the youngest scouts, outside the city of Rivne in northwest Ukraine.

Government funding helped more than 5,000 children attend 90 various camps at the three sites and others located throughout Ukraine in 2003.

Mr. Yurchyshyn noted that recognition by the government of the legitimacy and influence of Plast is a major success for the organization. He explained that today Plast has achieved recognition within the country as a positive force for developing good citizens and productive members of society.

The Ukrainian scout said that even Russian-speaking parents from the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts support their children's membership in Plast because it gets the kids off the streets and into a positive environment. There the youngsters can develop a sense of national self-identity and civic pride, and an opportunity to improve their Ukrainian-language skills.

Mr. Yurchyshyn said that getting the kids to speak Ukrainian exclusively is not a large problem due to a merit system generally in place for those who speak exclusively in the mother tongue. He said that peer pressure helps, too.

"At camp the children see the older ones who are adept at various camp skills and who are popular with the girls speaking Ukrainian and they try to be like them," explained Mr. Yurchyshyn.

Another achievement Plast-Ukraine can take credit for is creating a positive and open dialogue with other scouting and pseudo-scouting organizations in the country. Mr. Yurchyshyn said that Plast has good communications with all the other youth-oriented organizations in Ukraine and has developed a dialogue with the Sich youth organization, a scouting group dedicated to the Kozak tradition, on an idea to develop a Federation of Scouting in Ukraine with the noted economist Bohdan Hawrylyshyn as its head. Mr. Hawrylyshyn, currently in semi-retirement, is a lifelong member of Plast.

During its meeting in Kyiv, the KUPO decided that Plast would represent Ukrainian scouting at the World Bureau of Scouting. In support of such a move, Mr. Yurchyshyn noted that most of the other scouting organizations in the country were not against Plast as their representative at the world body and that the State Committee of Family and Youth acknowledged that Plast was the largest scouting organization in the country with the most extensive history and tradition.

In order to keep the worldwide Plast scouting movement in close contact and coordination, the KUPO also decided that it would initiate an effort to develop a web portal. The Internet site would allow access to the web pages of all nine Plast country organizations, as well as the sites of local Plast groups where such exist. The portal would provide links to other major sources of information on Ukraine and Ukrainians as well.

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