In 2010 in Hes­se­qua Munic­i­pal­i­ty, Rivers­dale Ukrain­ian muse­um was opened where you can see some tra­di­tion­al cloth­ing, cul­tur­al arti­facts, mur­al from Crimea and his­to­ry of Ukrain­ian ‑South African coop­er­a­tion between Hes­se­qua and Voz­ne­sen­sk Munic­i­pal­i­ties.

The sto­ry of this coop­er­a­tion has start­ed in 2004 when May­er of Rivers­dale Chris Taute and May­er of Voz­ne­senk Yuriy Gerzhov met at the con­fer­ence in Poland. Two strong lead­ers saw the poten­tial for coop­er­a­tion and signed twin­ning part­ner­ship between Voz­ne­sen­sk and Hes­se­qua. In 2007 this part­ner­ship gave birth to the “”HaQua Youth Pro­gramme” that lat­er was renamed into “Inter­na­tion­al Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme”. The Pro­gramme is an annu­al event and takes place inter­change­ably in South Africa and Ukraine. As result, over 200 Ukraini­ans has vis­it­ed South Africa and the oth­er way around.

The Inter­na­tion­al Lead­er­ship Pro­gram focused on teach­ing Ukrain­ian and South African del­e­gates about his­to­ry, cul­ture, lan­guages, peo­ple and tra­di­tions of each oth­er. In South Africa the pro­gramme is run by the Good to Share Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion and man­aged by Christo­pher Taute. In Ukraine the pro­gramme is ran by Voz­ne­sen­sk Munic­i­pal­i­ty and man­aged by the three organ­is­ers, Mrs Inna Slavich, Mrs Tatyana Tereshchenko, and Mrs Liud­my­la Momotenko.

In 2010 Liud­my­la Momotenko in coop­er­a­tion with South Africans who vis­it­ed Ukraine has arranged major­i­ty of the exhib­it and the muse­um was opened with the sup­port of Ukrain­ian Embassy to South Africa.

Inside the muse­um there is a beau­ti­ful mur­al of the famous cas­tle in Crimea Swallow’s Nest (Las­tivyine Gniz­do) made by late local artist Com­pi­on Saay­man after his trip to Ukraine. A spe­cial place in the muse­um is a stone of love that was pre­sent­ed by the may­er of Vos­ne­sen­sk to the muse­um. As it turned out years of coop­er­a­tion has led to few suc­cess­ful mar­riages and now South African-Ukrain­ian fam­i­lies are liv­ing both in Ukraine and South Africa.

In March 2015, the mur­al depict­ing chil­dren from South Africa and Ukraine as well as their home town land­scapes was cre­at­ed on one of the walls in the Muse­um.

Sim­i­lar to Rivers­dale, there is also a per­ma­nent exhi­bi­tion of the South African Cul­ture at the Kib­rik Muse­um of Graph­ics in Voz­ne­sen­sk, in the Myko­layiv Region. In addi­tion there is a library of Eng­lish lit­er­a­ture and Eng­lish Club cre­at­ed at the Voz­ne­sen­sk School #6. For his sup­port of inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion between Ukraine and South Africa Chris Taute was hon­ored with the Diplo­ma of Hon­or by the Min­istry of For­eign Affairs of Ukraine.

The Rivers­dale Muse­um is locat­ed in Ha Qua Youth Cen­tre and is avail­able for vis­i­tors by pre­vi­ous arrange­ment with Good to Share Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion  Chris Taute (Chair)  083 298 3349

Inter­na­tion­al Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme 2018 allowed 11 del­e­gates from Ukraine to vis­it South Africa. More pho­tos and feed­back of par­tic­i­pants about the pro­gramme are avail­able here:

Inter­na­tion­al Lead­er­ship Pro­gramme 5–18 July 2017 took place in Ukraine and 10 del­e­gates par­tic­i­pat­ed.