This is Vita, my new friend from Ukraine. She arrived in Canada for a visit in February 2022.  Her flight home was supposed to be on February 24, but was canceled due to Putin's invasion of Ukraine. She is thankful to be safe in our country but now watches the horror occurring in her homeland to friends and family who are still there.  She sees it in real time with videos sent by friends and family to her cell phone . 

 

I have come to know her since we took her in to care for my elderly mother. Back in Ukraine, Vita was a neurological medic. We count ourselves lucky to have found her just at a time we needed someone. She is a gift to us!

 

Vita is from Ivano Frankivsk, one of the cities Putin is bombing. Recently, the death of her daughter's best friend's father, killed in a bombing, has shaken her. Vita immediately sent some money through her Ukrainian banking system to his widow, a close friend.

 

I would like to raise some money for Vita, to help her get started on her new life here. She desperately wants to go home, but that seems unlikely for a very long time, if at all. Vita initially did not want me to do this for her, but together we decided that she could use some of this money raised to help her community directly. She is able to directly donate to people who need help in her Ukrainian community, but I would like to see her with enough Canadian funds to cover a flight to Canada for her daughter and any other friends or family who may be able to come, and money for future rent, not to mention everything else she will need that she hadn't packed in one suitcase.

 

I know there will be many more Vitas that will need all our help, but when I can see through her eyes and hear through her ears what is happening, I want to help as much as possible. Please give what you can to help Vita and her friends and family directly. 

 

With great appreciation,

Christine and Vita