The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now in its fifth month with no end in sight. Between continuous military offences, allegations of war crimes and peace talks going nowhere, civilians are continuously being forced to flee.
More than 9.6 million Ukrainian refugees have fled their country since the start of the invasion, creating the largest European refugee crisis since World War II and its aftermath, and is the largest global refugee crisis of the 21st century.
Numerous agencies have stepped in to provide help where they can and the charity Good Neighbors International is one of them.
They’re providing support on the border of Ukraine and Romania with things like medicine, food, and child protection services.
Good Neighbors Canada, their domestic branch which is located on King street in London, is taking a different approach.
Rachel Morrison, the project manager for Good Neighbors Canada, said they’re focused on bringing over and providing support to Ukrainian families who are fleeing the Russian invasion of their homeland.
Rachel Morrison, project manager at Good Neighbors Canada. (Screen Capture // Zoom)
“That involves providing support with their travel, getting here in the first place, finding some temporary accommodations,” she said. “We’re giving support to do with things like employment, getting kids in school, connecting with the community, learning English, anything they might need.”
Currently, there are ten families in the program so far. Two are already in Canada, four are in the final stages of making their journey here and the last four are still in the preliminary stages.
“As you can imagine there are quite a few steps involved in moving into a whole new country, especially when you don’t speak the language. So, we’re lucky enough to be partnered with an immigration agency who are providing support with applying to a specific visa which the government of Canada have opened up for Ukrainian families,” she said.
She’s referring to the Canadian-Ukrainian authorization for emergency travel (CUAET) program, which fast tracks immigration for Ukrainians to become temporary residents.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nearly 65,000 Ukrainian citizens and returning permanent Canadian residents of Ukrainian origin have arrived in Canada and over 260,000 CUAET applications have been approved.
Their primary obstacle is logistics and proper support.
Morrison said that once a family reaches the final stage, they’re assigned a family caseworker who assesses what sort of support they need, or want, when they get here.
“Not everybody is lucky enough to have the funds to pay for flights for themselves and all of their children. Some of them have pets, some of them have additional needs as well in the relocation process so there’s a lot of work that we’re doing in a collaborative way with each family to make sure they’re able to get here safely,” said Morrison.
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Morrison says they’re also looking for volunteers to help out at Good Neighbors Canada, especially with their upcoming Pumpkin Spice 5K 2022 fundraising event.
“Cheering along our participants, getting some food, listening to some music and using your time to create such a wonderful impact at the end of it all. If you’ve got a spare evening in a week or a spare weekend day or something, you can still use that limited time to bring about some sort of positive social impact.”
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