In Sacramento, they chose the person of the year: a Ukrainian woman received the title

Last Friday (February 10), the capital of California hosted the annual awards ceremony for participants in the Faces of the Capital project. The nominees included Russian-speaking immigrants, who were introduced to readers and radio listeners by the local Slavic media holding Afisha throughout the year.

Employees of the Afisha media holding. Photo: Ksenia Kirillova

Each hero of the project is unique in its own way. Some of them came to the United States in early childhood, and someone, on the contrary, immigrated already in adulthood, leaving everything that they had achieved over many years, including property, education and social status, in their former homeland. New immigrants had to literally start life from scratch. Some have mastered a completely new profession, while others, having made great efforts, were able to continue doing what they love in America. One way or another, each of them has achieved great success in his field.

Among the Russian-speaking immigrants in Sacramento, there were many immigrants from Ukraine, as well as from other post-Soviet countries. But this time, against the background of almost a year of unceasing military aggression, even this neutral immigrant holiday was imbued with a sense of solidarity with Ukraine. By the way, a realtor was recognized as the person of the year according to the results of readers' voting. Svetlana Kravchenko, who previously worked at the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations.

Svetlana recalls that she once had everything, including a personal office with a secretary, work in the government, and even her own language courses. Once in America, the woman was forced to start life anew, from the bottom. In the early years of immigration, she cleaned houses, tried herself as a babysitter for children, and eventually became a successful realtor.

Svetlana Kravchenko receives an award. Photo: Ksenia Kirillova

However, the connection with Ukraine was felt not only due to the origin of the contestants, but primarily because of the participants' active support for the victims of Russian aggression. So, one of the nominees of the competition, a vocal teacher Anastasia Marchuk sang her own song at the evening, written in English and Ukrainian.

Anastasia Marchuk with pupils. Photo: Ksenia Kirillova

Another contestant, co-owner of a construction company Lyubov Ilnitskaya in the very first days of the war, she went to Poland to help Ukrainian refugees arriving at the border.

Even the fate of an immigrant from India, director of the Department for Improving the Quality of Service of the Elica Medical Centers Network, Dr. Ejaya Signy. Dr. Saini received his medical education in Ukraine, graduating from the Odessa National Medical University. According to him, he chose him because the university in Odessa was considered one of the strongest medical universities in the former USSR.

By the way, the organizers of the competition, Afisha media holding and its head David Ponomar also received a public award - an order created in Ukraine international award "Cultural Diplomacy", awarded to Ukrainians and citizens of other countries for a special contribution to the development of Ukrainian society, culture, science, medicine, education, and so on. Over the past year, this award has been awarded not only to figures culture or sports, but well-known politicians, Hollywood actors and other people who in one way or another expressed support for Ukraine. Honored Artist of Ukraine presented the award in Sacramento Natalya Bagmut and writer Edward Amchislavsky.

Eduard Amchislavsky, Natalya Bagmut, David Sexton. Photo: Ksenia Kirillova

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