Ukrainian-American journalist Marta Kolomayets talks about her troubled way back to her roots and her charity work
Sitting on the summer terrace of the Repriza Cafe on cozy Sahaydachnoho street, Marta Kolomayets, a Ukrainian-American international journalist and Community Partnerships Project director who calls Kyiv one of her top-three favorite cities (the other two being New York and her native Chicago), claims the city has changed 100 percent since she started coming here during Soviet times.
“I flew in from New York in January 1991 when it was still the Christmas season here. It was all dark on Khreshchatyk and when I saw a rat running down it I thought: “What am I doing there?” Kolomayets recalled.
However, all that didn’t scare her away and she is happy to live and work in modern-day Ukraine.
“I was raised very aware of my Ukrainian roots,” Kolomayets explained.
Getting back to her past
Marta Kolomayets was born in Chicago, where her parents settled and eventually met, having emigrated to the U.S. after World War II. Going to Ukrainian school every Saturday and speaking Ukrainian at home, Kolomayets grew up a real advocate of everything Ukrainian.
“I always wanted to be a journalist, so I got an MS in journalism and moved to New York where I worked as an editor for The Ukrainian Weekly. But there was always a pull for me to come back to my Ukrainian roots and write about Ukraine, so when I had the opportunity in 1991 to open the first bureau of The Ukrainian Weekly in Ukraine, I jumped at the chance,” Kolomayets recalled.
So living within the Soviet Union, Kolomayets started writing for The Ukrainian Weekly, as well as for the Associated Press and Newsweek magazine. What’s more, when Marta Kolomayets first came here, she was one of the very few Americans in town. She wasn’t allowed to live in an apartment and had to stay at the Dnipro hotel.
“There was an old doorman at the hotel. I said “Good Morning” to him every day and he never replied and never smiled. I lived there from January till April and, the day I was leaving, I greeted him for the last time and he smiled at me. And I thought: “This is a victory!”
However, Kolomayets’ first trip to Ukraine took place earlier – back in 1985, when she came as part of a tour group – and in 1987 Kolomayets came as a tour guide herself. Upon this second visit, Marta also taped interviews with the dissidents Vyacheslav Chornovil, Mykhaylo Horyn and Zinoviy Krasivsky. At the time she was watched by the KGB, who stopped her on her way out at Boryspil airport.
“I was strip searched and questioned about those interviews. In the end they took my videotapes and threw me out of the country,” Kolomayets said.
From that moment on she was banned from the Soviet Union, but continued applying for a visa. Finally in 1990 she managed to obtain it due to the efforts of the Children of Chornobyl fund delegation, with whom Marta was to travel to Ukraine as a correspondent. That’s how she finally made it back.
Charity work
During her 15 years in Ukraine, apart from journalism, Kolomayets also worked for USAID as information officer concerned with public education in Ukraine. She also ran an anti-corruption campaign for USAID. At the moment Kolomayets heads the Community Partnerships project, training new mayors, helping make strategic plans for cities, and making communities more successful and democratic.
Apart from her main occupation, another life interest of Kolomayets’ is charity.
“I try to help other people who may not be as fortunate as I am,” Kolomayets explained.
One of the projects she is currently working on is “First Step to Success”– a mentoring program for young girls aged 16 to 20, which she is conducting together with Ukrainian non-profit organizations.
“We announced an essay competition for young girls on such subjects as “How I see myself as a future Ukrainian leader” or “What I’d like to do for Ukraine.” We received over 300 essays from all over Ukraine and we picked 50 of them. So on June 28 all these girls will come to Kyiv and meet up with First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko, and other professional women – the ambassador of Canada, the DCM of US Embassy Sheila Gwaltney, the TV host Olha Herasymyuk, the designer Anna Babenko and singers Ruslana and Ani Lorak among others, who will talk to girls about their own careers and then we’ll also hold workshops for them,” Kolomayets said.
Another project Kolomayets is working on is the “Youth Leadership” project sponsored by USAID and the U.S. Ukraine Foundation.
“From July 1 through the 10, twenty college students from Ukraine and five Ukrainian-speaking students from the U.S. will come to Kyiv. They will meet with the new ambassadors coming to town, go on tours to Chornobyl and Slavutych and visit the Ukrainian parliament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Presidential Administration, as well as take part in other events that will help them to build their future careers,” Kolomayets said.
Artistic Family
Initially, when Kolomayets came to Ukraine to write for The Ukrainian Weekly, she thought she was going to do it for a year or two. But then she met her husband, Danylo Yanevsky, a famous TV presenter, currently a news anchor for Channel 5, and they started a life together, and have been married for 12 years now.
“Though Danylo has grown up in the Soviet Union, he was very open-minded and democratic – he listened to Beatles and the Rolling Stones. He gave me so much insight into what the Soviet Union really was,” Kolomayets recalled.
In 2003, apart from her many occupations, Marta tried her hand in moviemaking and was quite successful.
“I made a documentary about the life of patriarch Yosyp Slipyj – they showed it on Ut-1, 1+1 and channel 5. It was a true story about the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic church, who I met in 1978. Slipyj had an amazing fate – he lived in Soviet labor camps for over 22 years and then Khrushchev traded him to the United States for a Soviet spy. He was a hero of mine,” Kolomayets said.
Among future plans for Kolomayets include exhibiting the paintings of her father – artist Anatole Kolomayets. A book of his work was recently released in Ukraine.
“Next year he turns 80, so I want to hold exhibitions dedicated to this anniversary in Kyiv, as well as in the Poltava region where he was born, and Dnipropetrovsk where he grew up,” Kolomayets said.
Having lived in Ukraine for 15 years, Kolomayets admits there were difficult times but she never regretted her decision to settle here.“Ukraine has been an adventure and I find myself very lucky to have been here in such a turbulent period. Every year there is something going on – I see history in the making.”
