Honoring the Memory of Natalia Danylenko

Natalia and Ivan Danylenko belonged to the most sincere and active supporters of the revived Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. We are deeply grateful to this family for friendship, for attention and understanding of the university’s problems, and for that huge job Natalia and Ivan did in the USA popularizing NaUKMA and seeking support for the university’s activities.

Many events and long-term projects in NaUKMA were initiated by Natalia Danylenko and realized under her participation; all these projects had patriotic slant. A number of projects for students oriented at cultural, political and historical studies were launched and realized due to support of Ivan and Natalia Danylenko. Among others, we should mention an artistic competition of Halshka Hulevychivna’s portraits, competitions of students’ works on the history of Ukraine and national development, and researches on the ways of Ukrainian society democratization held during a few years in a row.

Natalia Danylnko initiated and funded establishing of the Informative Centre for Ukrainian Women Organizations in Ukraine under NaUKMA, and she sponsored forming of the Centre’s Library during all the period of its functioning. Natalia and Ivan Danylenko were active participants of NaUKMA charity projects: they supported publishing of the encyclopedia “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Names” and restoration of rooms of NaUKMA Bachelor’s Library. Natalia Danylenko initiated and established on her own funds a “Free Lunch” project to support NaUKMA students; over 500 NaUKMA students (orphans and children from penurious families) were provided with hot lunches during several university years. Due to Natalia Danylenko’s activities, other sponsors joined the “Free Lunch” project, which allowed exploring the range of supported students.

For considerable contribution to the revival and development of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, the university community in 2006 honored Natalia Danylenko with the highest award of the Academy – the Medal of St. Petro Mohyla.

Every year Natalia Danylenko visited Ukraine, she was a guest of our University and an active participant of many academic and cultural events. She was happy for our successes and attentive to our faults. She was always full of energy and optimism, her soul was young, and nobody could guess her age. She believed in Ukraine, and the intension of her belief fascinated, inspired and invigorated us for solving problems and overcoming obstacles.

NaUKMA collected congratulations to Natalia Danylenko on her 80th anniversary and comments from our colleagues and students in an issue of the NaUKMA Academy Panorama (May 2005). Till her last day of life she was the same as described by Olena Tretiacova, the Dean of Communication with Students, and the same she will always stay in our memory.

“It was not an easy task to write about Natalia Danylenko. We have been acquainted for almost five years, and all that time this person kept surprising and sometimes even impressing me.

I tried to define the most characterizing feature of Natalia… Vitality? Or, as we used to say sometime, “an active position in life”? May be, but it does not determine her personality. This is just a trait.

Patriotism and devotion to revival of Ukraine? Yes, that is about her, although it is never demonstrated through battle cries or waving flags, but through hard everyday work with people, historical sources, government and public organizations.

The “Free Lunch” project, established by Danylenko family and Lidia Kyi, helps young people to support their strength on the way to knowledge, and, which is more, teaches them the main principle – “send the good round”, because we all depend one on another.

The students who met Natalia Danylenko and communicated with her said, that due to her desire to change the world for better and her ability to overcome difficulties they understood: instead of whimpering and complaining one should believe in good and do good; then the world will change, and we will change with it…

So, what is the main feature of Natalia? May be, her feminity? This beautiful woman researches the history of womanhood, and demonstrates by her own life how a personality can be developed without refusing the unicity of own destination – to be a woman. I think, that is what abidingly attracts men’s attention to Natalia, and that is what allows her to make such a harmonic couple with Ivan Danylenko, who supports and protects her, who is her closest friend and like-minded person.

So, what is then Natalia’s defining feature? Finally, I guess, the answer is figured out: this is her proper pride. Her attention and respect to others, her desire to do something for her nation and her country, to help others to find their own ways and to avoid despairing – all that derived from this proper pride. I am happy that our students have the opportunity to meet people like Natalia and Ivan Danylenko. May be, only in years they will understand how much such people influence our subconscious attitude to the world and to ourselves…”

Our agelong respect and agelong gratitude to Natalia Danylenko – a Sincere Person, a Patriot and a Ukrainian.

Memory Eternal.

Your Native Land and Kyiv-Mohyla Academy are bewailing.

On behalf of NaUKMA Community and The International Charitable Fund for the Renaissance of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy,

Vyacheslav Briukhovetskyi
Serhiy Kvit
Natalia Shumkova
Olena Tretiakova