From war to a safe harbour
A former Ukrainian university leader who fled her home with her daughter following the Russian invasion will deliver a lecture in UCC next week.
Since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in 2014, Dr Larysa Samosonok has endured constant conflict in her home country where she was forced to flee her home three times before finally making the long journey to Ireland.
The former vice-rector of Donetsk National University of Economics in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Dr Samosonok helped oversee the transfer of the university’s operations to the nearby city of Kryvyi Rih.
She was then forced to vacate her home Kryvyi Rih in 2017 to move to Kyiv where she was director of the project office of Vzayemodiya—Plus, an NGO promoting entrepreneurship in microbusinesses and SMEs especially for internally displaced people.
This work extended to supporting small NGOs and the public service to restore critical social supports and infrastructure in areas being impacted by the ongoing conflict in the east of the country. Much of this work was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Dr Samosonok has links with Cork dating back to 1995 when UCC commenced cooperation with her home university under an EU-funded Tempus-Tacic project.
In her lecture, Dr Samosonok will give a personal account of her experiences of trying to forge a life for her and her daughter under the constant shadow of war.
Dr Samosonok’s talk will be the first in a new lecture series marking the 75th anniversary of UCC’s Centre for Adult Continuing Education (ACE), while paying tribute the first ever director of ACE founder Seán Ó Murchú for held the role from 1967 to 1990.
Ó Murchú not only expanded the UCC course offering to every corner of Munster, but he also worked with his counterparts in Galway to develop adult education in the west of Ireland. Among the people he worked with in Galway was a young Michael D. Higgins.
Dr Séamus Ó Tuama, Director of ACE, UCC said: “It is so fitting that Larysa Samosonok should deliver the first lecture in this series. She, like Seán Ó Murchú himself, has dedicated her life to creating better futures for other people. They both share that zeal to make the world a better place for everyone and especially for those who have their opportunities limited by circumstances beyond their control.”
The series kicks off on 30 March with Dr Samosonok’s lecture and will include speakers from other institutions and organisations in Ireland and the USA. There will be eight lectures in total between 30 March and 25 May.