Ukrainian refugees grateful for overwhelming support from Winnipeggers

Hundreds of Ukrainians will be arriving by a chartered flight to Winnipeg on May 23. Alex Karpa explains how the community is preparing to help them out.

By Alex Karpa

Six-year-old Gloria and three-year-old Grace are playing with new dolls, just one of many toys and accessories donated to support Ukrainian refugees moving to Winnipeg.

Shodiya, Oksana Olaonipeukun and their two kids fled Kyiv due to the ongoing war and moved to Manitoba at the end of April.

“In Ukraine, there is nothing right about it right now, so we are trying to put ourselves together because of our kids,” said Oksana Olaonipeukun.

Shodiya and his family arrived in Canada with very little, as everything they own was left behind in the war-torn country. They are living with a Winnipeg family at the moment but are looking for permanent housing. They came to the Riverbend Moving & Storage facility Wednesday afternoon to find items they’ll need when they move out on their own.

“We feel at home. We have come to this premises because we are getting an apartment, we are going to get money that we don’t have now, we feel the love. We want to thank everyone that donated to this,” he explained.


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Betty Boisvert and several volunteers come every day to this storage facility to sort out items that have been donated by Winnipeggers.

“It’s all been organized into living room, bedroom, men’s clothes, women’s clothes, children’s clothes, shoes, boots, and then we have to separate it from winter or spring as well as the bedding that has to be washed and provided for the people. It takes a tremendous amount of work and takes a tremendous number of volunteers,” said Boisvert.

The donation drive has been going on for a month. Boisvert says they have received thousands of items and expect thousands more to be donated. Wayne Kitchur, the President of Riverbend Moving & Storage has given up a quarter of his facility to store all of the donated items. Kitchur is of Ukrainian descent and says it was important for him to help out in any way he could.

“I was only planning to donate a couple hundred square feet, but it’s turned into a couple thousand square feet,” Kitchur explained. “I’m very happy to donate this and I hope this goes to a good cause.”

The federal government announced three chartered flights of Ukrainian refugees that will be arriving in Canada in the next few weeks, with one of the flights arriving in Winnipeg on May 23.

Like many Ukrainians, Shodiya and Oksana both hope the war will end soon so they could go back and visit family and friends living in Ukraine, but for now, Winnipeg is their home.

“We shouldn’t lose hope, we should keep fighting and we are sure Ukraine is going to win,” said Shodiya.

As of May 4, over 204,000 Ukrainians have applied to move to Canada and 91,000 have been approved, with that number expected to rise in the coming weeks.

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