If you can imagine leaving everyone you know and love, your home and job or school and coming to a place with just a suitcase and arriving at a place unplanned, where you can鈥檛 even order a cup of coffee without assistance, then you can imagine what it鈥檚 like to be a displaced Ukrainian.
There is an old Ukrainian saying that the sea is filled by many drops of rain. It gives humans hope at times when events have overwhelmed us. In May of 2022, the Comox Valley Ukrainian Cultural Society (CVUCS) shifted from being a society dedicated solely to the cultural origins of its hyphenated Canadian members to a society that joined in the fight to enhance the physical survival of newly arrived unhyphenated Ukrainian survivors escaping Putin鈥檚 war.
In those early days, the CVUCS responded by creating a subcommittee of the board called the Committee Supporting Ukraine Survivors or CFUS. CFUS comprised six members, mostly directors of the CVUCS who were motivated to make a difference in the lives of the Ukrainian newcomers as they started to arrive in the Comox Valley. Meeting those needs was like trying to play a game of darts in a darkened room. Once the committee, with the help of the larger community, began to locate those who were already here in the Valley, addressing those needs was like trying to build a boat which in addition to staying afloat while underway, was adding passengers weekly and monthly en route in an unpredictable manner.
The illegal Russian war in Ukraine began in late February 2022, over a year ago. According to data available from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, as of March 16, 2023, the number of Ukrainians seeking safety in Canada was well over 190,970. The current number in the Comox Valley is over 60 families or more than 160 individuals.
However, there are another 425,459 Ukrainians who have been approved, who have not yet arrived in Canada. The chair of the CFUS, Susan Plensky, says that we now have the benefit of lived experience in meeting the needs of current newcomers over the last 11 months. And with the added assistance of the recently hired Ukrainian integration co-ordinator, Oksana Moisieieva, a newcomer herself, who speaks Ukrainian, Russian as well as English, CFUS is barely keeping up with meeting the current level of needs.
CFUS has identified six areas of urgent need for volunteers. These areas include:
鈥� Host families and supports for hosts;
鈥� Drivers;
鈥� Food security;
鈥� Conversational English acquisition;
鈥� Social events programming, and;
鈥� Job search skills and job retention.
Please explore becoming a volunteer assisting newly arrived Ukrainians starting a life in the Comox Valley. Be that drop of water.
Date: April 26, 2023 Time: 10 a.m. to noon. Place: Genoa Building, Marina Park, Comox
Expressions of interest can be directed to Facebook - Comox Valley Ukrainian Cultural Society, by email at cvukrainianculturalsociety@gmail.com, or by phone, at 250-792-0646
