Ukrainian Canadian Relief Fund

Ukrainian Canadian Relief Fund (Фонд допомоги українців Канади; Fond dopomohy ukraintsiv Kanady, or UCRF). An organization created in 1945 by the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen's Association and the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (now Congress) to assist Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees in postwar Europe. Between 1945 and 1947 it gathered nearly 200,000 dollars. In Europe the UCRF was represented by a Relief Mission (Bohdan Gordon Panchuk, A. Crapleve, A. Yaremovich) which worked through the Canadian Red Cross and the International Refugee Organization in the British zone of Germany to organize Ukrainian schools, resist forced repatriation, lobby for resettlement in Canada, and assist in family reunions. The Relief Fund was initially linked to the Central Ukrainian Relief Bureau (CURB) but continued functioning after CURB was disbanded late in 1948. In 1962 the UCRF was reconstituted as Ukrainian Canadian Social Services.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]