In Memory of Anna Kisil

ANNA KISIL

(19.11.1960- 16.11.2020)

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) expresses deep sorrow and sympathy for the irreparable loss of Anna Kisil, UWC Vice President and Chair of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations. After a year of battling a serious illness, Anna Kisil passed away on November 16, 2020, with her family by her side in Toronto, Canada.

Anna Kisil is widely known for her good deeds both in the diaspora and in Ukraine, for which she has carried her love throughout her life. Anna Kisil was born in Ukraine, where she graduated from Lviv Polytechnic Institute with a degree in civil engineering and lived in Toronto since 1991.

There, she became actively involved in the Ukrainian community, becoming one of the founders and long-term Chairs of the “Fourth Wave” International Organization of Ukrainian Communities in North America. In time, Anna Kisil joined the Ukrainian Canadian Congress – Toronto Branch, where she served as a member of the Board for many years. Anna Kisil has worked diligently as part of the UWC team. From 2008-2018, she served as Chair of the World Council of Culture, and, since 2018, she has served as both the Chair of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations and as the Second Vice-President of the UWC.  Her initiative, great ideas, and hard work have become an integral part of the UWC and other civic institutions. In particular, she was instrumental in organizing UWC’s international project: Shevchenko 200, the UWC’s 50^th anniversary, and the UWC’s 11^th Congress. Anna Kisil was a successful female entrepreneur who managed to build a business in Canada and Ukraine and respected each of her employees.

Anna Kisil was also well known as a philanthropist who generously supported numerous projects in Ukraine and in the diaspora, including the construction of churches, the reconstruction of historic buildings, support for artists, exhibitions, the publication of books and textbooks for Ukrainian schools in the diaspora, and building the Ukrainian women’s movement.

Good, sensitive, wise, balanced, always smiling, a true patriot of her people – she raised her two children, Andriy and Iryna, in the Ukrainian spirit, and was a wonderful grandmother for three beloved grandchildren – Andriyka, Victoria and Maksym. She was a faithful sister to Maria and Luba, an exemplary daughter of her mother Evdokia, a close friend for Igor Bokiy, and a true guardian of her large and strong family.

For her services to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, Anna Kisil has been awarded numerous honours, including the President of Ukraine’s Medal on the occasion of 25 Years of Independence, the Ivan Mazepa Cross, and the UWC’s highest award, the St. Vladimir the Great Medal.

The Ukrainian World Congress and the worldwide Ukrainian diaspora will always remember Anna Kisil as a person with extraordinary qualities, who made an outstanding contribution to the development of Ukrainian public life in the diaspora and support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

We sincerely share in the grief of Anna Kisil’s family and friends and pray for the peace of her soul.

Memory eternal!