Borys Wrzesnewskyj - Humanitarian Work

Humanitarian Work

Wrzesnewskyj is known for his humanitarian work both in his riding of Etobicoke Centre and abroad, including helping children causes in Ukraine. Through Future Bakery, Wrzesnewskyj was one of the original sponsors of the Out of the Cold program to aid the homeless and numerous other charitable organizations working in a number of Toronto’s most challenging neighbourhoods.

In the late 1980s he helped organize and finance the nascent Rukh Movement (People's Movement of Ukraine). In 1991, financed and organized a group in support of the referendum for the independence of Ukraine. One of his projects was an underground printing press which produced and distributed several million pieces of pro-independence literature in the South and East of Ukraine. Through the 1990s was involved with various civil society and humanitarian projects in Ukraine, such as the building of libraries and providing scholarships for gifted students.

Through his family foundation, Wrzesnewskyj has provided funding support to:

• The Ukraine Transparency and Election Monitoring Project to train independent election scrutineers in Ukraine.
• The Ukraine List electronic periodical of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies (University of Ottawa) targeting policy specialists and academics.
• The delivery of Ukrainian News to every MP and Senator in Canada’s Parliament.
• The publication and delivery of Ukraine Analyst to members of the Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Group.
• Ukrainian courses at The Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (CERES) at the University of Toronto.
• Grants for archival research into Ukrainian national movements during World War II.
• The republication of books about Ukrainians who perished in the Holocaust.
• Archival research into victims of the Holocaust and Soviet terror in the Sambir region of Ukraine.
• Donated $500,000 to build the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre (Toronto, Canada).
• Annually sponsored an intern from Ukraine to participate in an internship program in Canada's Parliament (Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program).
• Donated $250,000 to finance election observers for the first round of voting in Ukraine.
• Self-funded missions to Sudan, Darfur, Somalia, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
• Lead the Ukrainian Canadian community’s fundraising effort for famine relief in Somalia, i.e. 2011 Horn of Africa famine, with $100,000 committed.
• Donated $100,000 to the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine.

In December 2010, he created the Roman Wrzesnewskyj Polish Endowment Fund with a $35,000 donation toward the preservation and development of advanced Polish language studies at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Toronto. Additionally, each Christmas and New Years Day, he donates his time by delivering toys and gifts to children in community housing projects in Etobicoke Centre.