‘The war is not near the end’: Around 100 people per day arrive from Ukraine at Calgary airport

In keeping with employees on the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society (CCIS) – the first group serving to Ukrainians settle in Calgary since March 2022, there was a surge of individuals coming to Calgary fleeing the struggle in Ukraine.

Hanna Vakhovska remembers the sound of bombing and feeling her home shake on February 24, 2022 – the day the struggle in Ukraine started.
She lived in an underground shelter for 10 days, not figuring out if she would make it out alive.

“Every single day within the shelter in Mariupol, when the bomb involves us, we thought possibly it is just for two days and it is going to be over, nevertheless it goes on and on and I am unable to think about how persons are nonetheless within the Ukraine just isn’t,” Vakhovksa stated Saturday in Calgary.

Vakhovska, her husband and sister have been residing in Calgary since October, after enduring an extended and generally harmful journey from Mariupol and discovering non permanent shelter in three different international locations in Europe.

She worries about her dad and mom and teenage siblings at house close to Donetsk.

“Each time after a giant bombing they advised me ‘OK, possibly we’ll apply for a visa for Ukrainians,’ however after just a few days they are saying ‘no, it is OK, we keep in our house, ‘” Vakhovska stated.

“As a result of they have been residing below struggle since 2014 – it is loopy to say – however they’re getting used to residing below bombing,”

Along with working on the airport with CCIS, Vakhovska volunteered at a clothes donation occasion for Ukrainian ladies on Saturday.

“It is laborious. It does not make up for the grief they’ve skilled, however hopefully I consider sufficient within the energy of neighborhood that it is going to be a really constructive day for them as a result of they have been by way of a lot,” says Kristen Klok, who partnered with the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society to host the occasion.

Klok donated designer objects and CCIS supplied the house the place the ladies and youngsters may eat lunch.

Along with procuring on the occasion, the ladies had an opportunity to socialize with different newcomers and construct new friendships.

Employees with CCIS say the necessity is nice for extra donated objects as a result of virtually 100 individuals a day now arrive on the Calgary airport from Ukraine.

Many are anxious about when the Canadian non permanent resident program will finish, whereas others are giving up hope that the struggle will quickly be over.

“Lots of people are nonetheless devastated and so they haven’t any place to remain and so they stayed in Europe for some time and so they cannot return house,” stated Kateryna Bryzh, a program facilitator at CCIS.

“The struggle just isn’t near the top, and we nonetheless should keep in mind that, in order that’s why individuals come – simply to search for a greater life, to take a seat someplace as a result of they can not be in limbo.

“The necessity is nice as a result of we have now so many individuals coming,” Bryzh stated.

Vakhovska’s condo, which she and her husband had simply purchased earlier than the struggle started, was broken and is anticipated to be demolished this spring.

Nonetheless, she stays grateful and sometimes wonders if the trauma she skilled previously 12 months was a dream.

“Canada is a pleasant, secure place for us to start out a brand new life from scratch as a result of we misplaced every little thing in Ukraine.

“Perhaps I died in Mariupol and now every little thing is unbelievable. What occurred to me now — it is like a miracle. Perhaps I died and that is my second life.”

The non permanent resident visa program expires on the finish of March.

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