Editor’s Note: Family surnames are not used in order to protect family members still in Ukraine.
Approximately 250,000 of the 8 million Ukrainians who have fled their war-torn country have been admitted to Canada since the Russian invasion. Yesterday, Nov. 19, marked 1,000 days.
B.C. has received 11 percent of these, according to Andrea Malysh, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress for the Thompson Okanagan.
Since its inception in summer 2022, the Ukraine Nightingale Project has helped 63 Ukrainians, including 27 children, from 22 families establish new lives in the South Okanagan.
“These are the people with whom we’ve worked but there are more newcomers in the area,” said UNP founder Jennifer Martison.
A volunteer, not-for-profit organization, UNP assists with accommodation, language, employment, transportation, and a myriad of online forms, such as those for medical examinations, work permits, and applications for permanent residency.
“Almost all the adults are employed full or part-time. There has been one death, one birth, and a divorce. All kids are in school and one young woman has been admitted to university,” said
Martison.
Some have become self-employed.
Their businesses range in size from selling baked goods at farmers’ markets to the Sunflower Ukrainian Café in Summerland which adds vibrancy to the local community and provides employment.
Many of the newcomers are women with children whose husbands and adult sons remain in Ukraine primarily because of the war.
In October 2022, Liubov and her young son Artem were able to come to Canada because their Canada Ukraine Authorized Emergency Travel visas became available.
At that time, husband Serhii, who has a medical condition, and adult son Oleksandr, lacked the necessary CUAET visas and documentation needed to exit the country legally.
A year later, shedding tears of joy, Liubov greeted them at the E-Bus station in West Kelowna.
UNP helped with logistics and airline travel.
In Penticton, Diane MacDonald acted as the host family, helping the family to navigate numerous challenges.
Today, all three adults are employed at the Penticton Lakeside Resort, and Artem has successfully completed two years at Holy Cross School.
In Ukraine Liubov and Serhii were chartered accountants and Oleksandr was a university student majoring in marketing and management.
Liubov is making significant progress in learning English, has obtained her driver’s license, and purchased a car.
The decision to leave Ukraine is not easy, especially when leaving loved ones behind.
“We came for a better life for the boys,” said Liubov, whose parents remain in Ukraine.
A more recent newcomer left an adult son, mother, and beloved dog behind to bring her young daughter to the safety and promise of Canada.
Everyone arrives with their own wrenching stories of loss and violence, of homes and farmland going up in flames, of the deaths of neighbours, friends, and family members, of the whistle of bombs and the sound of air raid sirens.
“Many of the children and adults have PTSD to some degree,” Martison said.
She recalled two boys, now well-adjusted to their new lives, who consistently drew pictures of tanks, explosions and airplanes dropping bombs during their first year here.
Some continue to struggle with their haunting memories.
All the Ukrainians assisted by UNP have come through the CUAET program.
Initiated soon after the onslaught of hostilities, the program ended in March of this year.
CUAET was basically a three-year work permit program with no special safety net, not a refugee program with government support.
Ukrainians came here under their own volition and as a result have had to depend heavily on volunteer organizations.
The CUAET program provided verification that the participants had legal status to leave Ukraine and had passed criminal and health checks.
Almost all Canadians are kind and generous to a fault, but a very few are not.
A woman with two children responded to a Facebook posting that promised accommodation and assistance only to find upon arrival she was supposed to pay $1,600 per month for a very inadequate basement room.
Serious dilemmas face Ukrainians living abroad.
Recently, President Zelensky announced that any male of draft age and any person, male or female, in a medically related field must return to Ukraine to renew their passports, thereby ensuring their service in the military.
The other hurdle is obtaining permanent residency status at the end of their work visas.
The requirements include a rigorous language test and employment with preference given to certain fields such as health care.
The recently announced government reduction in the number of permanent residents will make achieving permanent residency even more difficult.
