Awarding of certificates to the fourth generation of Ukrainian IEP participants and an exhibition of works by children from Ukraine

On Wednesday, March 12, 2025, in the "Blessed Alojzije Kard. Stepinac" hall at the Catholic University of Croatia, the fourth generation of Ukrainian students were awarded certificates of successful completion of the Integration and Education Program and certificates of language proficiency.
 

The ceremony was attended by Rector Željko Tanjić, MP and Head of the Croatia-Ukraine Interparliamentary Friendship Group Zdravka Bušić, Second Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Croatia Borys Yasynskyy, Head of the Department for National Minorities at the City Office for Culture and Civil Society Tanja Horvatin, President of the Ukrainian Community of the City of Zagreb Marija Meleško, Vice President of the Ukrainian Community of the City of Zagreb and Member of the 4th Convocation of the Croatian Parliament Borislav Graljuk, teachers, program participants, their families and friends.
 

The 31 IEP participants acquired knowledge of the Croatian language, history and culture four times a week from October to February. In his speech, Rector Željko Tanjić congratulated the participants on their perseverance, thanked the teachers and the Ukrainian Community of the City of Zagreb for their cooperation, and briefly presented the joint projects of the Catholic University of Croatia and the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv.
 

The President of the Ukrainian Community of the City of Zagreb, Marija Meleško, thanked CUC as the first and only university to offer this form of integration and education; she congratulated the participants on this "small victory" and wished them much success in their further integration into Croatian society.
 

Project manager Karla Žagi, PhD, joined in the congratulations, thanking the entire team of teachers and the CUC administration for their support in the realization of the project and planning of new activities.
 

After the ceremonial receipt of certificates, program participant Maryna Zhuravel addressed the fourth generation, thanking CUC for the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and the teachers for their dedication and effort.
 

After the ceremony, an exhibition of children's drawings "Colors of War and Hope: Drawings of a Wounded Childhood" was opened on the first floor. The exhibition presented works by Ukrainian children currently living in Ukraine, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia, and was created at the initiative of fourth-generation participant Liudmila Sydorenko. At the opening of the exhibition, the Second Secretary of the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Croatia, Borys Yasynskyy, thanked the CUC for hosting and invited everyone present to observe the children's hope for an early end to the war in the exhibited drawings.
 

MP Zdravka Bušić said that these children's drawings remind her of the drawings of Croatian children during the Homeland War and highlighted Croatia's support for Ukraine in these difficult times. The exhibition was then opened by Rector Željko Tanjić and President of the Ukrainian Community of the City of Zagreb Marija Meleško, with the hope that as many CUC students as possible would see it. The exhibition will be open until Friday, March 28.

The sponsors of the Integration and Education Program are the German Bishops' Conference Foundation Renovabis and CUC, and the collaborating organization is the Ukrainian Community of the City of Zagreb. The program has been implemented at CUCsince February 2023, and classes are currently underway for the fifth of the six groups planned by the project. The teaching team of the Integration and Education Program consists of university teachers: Assoc. Prof. Mario Bara, Assoc. Prof. Tado Jurić, Assoc. Prof. Lucija Mihaljević, Assoc. Prof. Milica Mikecin, Assoc. Prof. Karla Žagi, Ana Komarytsia, Mag. Philol. and Matea Vidulić, Mag. Comm.