Italy: a Sunday school for Ukrainians opens in Pescara

A Ukrainian school opened on the 25th of February in Pescara. It takes its name, ?Ivan Franko?, from a popular national writer who lived at the turn of the century. The first 30 students have already signed on but could soon increase in number. This is the third Ukrainian school to open in Italy, the first was inaugurated in 2002 in Rome in the Greco-Catholic Ukrainian church and the second in Naples. The classes have already begun but are only held on Sundays so that Ukrainian and Italo-Ukrainian children can continue to study at Italian public schools while at the same time being given the opportunity to learn the Ukrainian language, history, culture and traditions. ?It is designed to create a strong bond with their county of origin? says the ?Ucraina? association, run by Maria Pererva, that has promoted and supported the opening of the school with the collaboration of the local authorities for Culture and European Policy. The local parish, Saint Andrew, has also participated and has provided the space for the lessons. The Ukrainian community in and around Pescara is made up of about 800 legal residents but when irregular residents are taken into account the number reaches about 2000, many of whom are women who work as care givers and housekeepers. The Ukrainian community is the third largest community after the Albanese and Romanian ones and the one with the largest number of women. The Ukrainian ambassador, Mr. Cerniovskiy, visited Abruzzo for the school?s inauguration and expressed his appreciation and admiration for ?the quality of the relationship established between the Ukrainian community in Pescara and the local institutions? demonstrating a great interest in ?promoting projects of economic cooperation and cultural exchange between this region and Ukraine?. The first good chance for such cooperation to take place could be the arrival, in March, of a commission from the University of Kiev to talk about setting up an agreement with the ?Sapienza? University in Rome. The local government in Pescara is also evaluating the possibility of starting an academic partnership between Kiev and the D?Annunzio University (Pescara). In the meantime, the Ukrainian ambassador donated a number of books from the Ukrainian minister for Public Education for the inauguration of the new school.