Yulia was born in Ukraine in a little village close to Zorokiv in Zhytomyr region. Her father, Mykhailo Stepanenko, who was only 11 years old when he became an orphan, told her about the scary fate of the grandparents.

    Her grandfather was a wealthy landowner and businessman, had several agricultural manufactures. In Zorokiv he built a school, which stands to this day. He didn't want to collaborate with the communists regime, and they killed him by shooting in the back, when he was coming home. They beat her grandmother up, and she died within five days. Communists followed Yulia's father his whole life in Soviet Ukraine and this formed his political vision.

    Therefore, when there was a chance to move to Western Ukraine, (Yulia's mother was from Halychyna), father grabbed the opportunity. The family lived first in a small town Strilka, where father got a job, and when the Germans came they moved to the city Staryj Sambir. There Yulia went to school and became a member of the forbidden Plast organization.

    In 1944, when the Red Army was close, the family moved to the West through Carpathian Mountains, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany. In Hamburg, the family stayed to the end of the World War II and after the war they were in a Heidenau Camp for displaced persons for 4 years. During camp life Yulia studied in a gymnasium and renewed her membership in the Plast organization. She participated in Plast Jamboree in 1947 in Mittenwald, which gathered about 2000 Plast members.

    Yulia arrived to Ottawa in October of 1948 and lives here since then. Here she graduated from high school, and studied at the University of Ottawa. In 1967 she got her Master's degree on the topic of Ukrainian poet Ivan Bahrianyj and in 1982 Doctor's degree on the thesis "Yevhen Malaniuk - Poetical Individuality." Both of her theses were printed by Ukrainian Free Academy of Science.

    Yulia was in Plast her whole life. In Ottawa she belonged to a group "Spartanky" in 1949-1953. Since 1959 Yulia was an active organizer of Plast life and community activities in Ottawa, counsellor for group "Kalyna," Ottawa's Plast leader in 1972-1985 (for 13 years).

    From 1985 to 1987 she was a member of Canada's High Plast Command (HPC) and in 1987 to 1991 a head of Canada's HPC. She also took part in many leadership camps in Germany (1947), Toronto (1967). She belongs to the 1st O.&S. Tysovskyj Kurin and was its leader from 1993 to 1997. For her activities she was honoured with Sv. Yurij in Silver award in 1986.

    Yulia was a participant of many Plast jamborees and meetings: in Manitoba (1970), East Chathem (1972). In 1984, she represented Volodymyr Piasecky's plan to create a mixed boys-girls group in Ottawa, which was opened in Ottawa by Plast Head Yurij Starosolskyj.

    Yulia was also very active in educational field, led Ukrainian courses in Ottawa (1979-1984) and taught as an instructor at the University of Ottawa in the Slvistic Department (1975-1982). As a head of Ottawa branch of Ukrainian Canadian Congress, she organized many political and cultural events in Ottawa, among them protest-demonstrations in front of Soviet Embassy in Ottawa and celebrations of the 1000 anniversary of Christianity in Ukraine on the Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

    At present time Yulia is a head of Ottawa branch of Children of Chornobyl Canadian Foundation.

Yulia Woychyshyn parents

Since Ukraine's independence in 1991, Yulia visited Ukraine 8 times. During one of her visits she got from her relatives in Ukraine a picture of her parents from the 50s. This picture is very important for her and her family because during the World War II her father, Mykhailo Stepanenko, being followed by communist agents, destroyed all of his personal documents and pictures.