Ukrainians in need

Hi everyone,

We recently had the great fortune to meet Anna. She is from Ukraine and is now living with our family. More importantly, she is a truly incredible person. She has come to Canada alone to try and support her family and establish a life here. Her story is inspiring but tragic, and her life is still fraught with risk.

Her husband and brother are fighting in the war, while her parents, grandfather, and friends are stuck in cities being relentlessly bombed by Russian forces. Anna hears the rockets in the background when they call. Her husband, mother, father, grandfather, brother, sister-in-law and nephew have all been separated. At the war’s beginning, Anna was given 10 minutes to pack up and leave her life behind.

The first question that leaves our lips each morning never changes - "what happened last night"? There have been good mornings, and bad mornings. The media cannot do justice to the first-hand accounts of the unnecessary human tragedy taking place in Ukraine.

Anna ran a business with over 100 employees with her husband, and had dreams of starting a family soon. Her entire life was taken from her by the events of this year. Her business is gone, many close to her have passed, and her family and friends remain at risk.

The impact of even a small amount of money can be life-changing under these circumstances. We helped Anna fund surgery for a friend. The amount of funding was not material to most of us, but it allowed a surgeon to come to the city, perform a successful operation, and for Anna's friend to see again after losing an eye in the conflict.

This message aims to raise funds to help with critical medical treatment, food, and transportation out of the warzone for families stuck in conflict. Funds will be directly allocated, and we will share the stories of the impact we have together.

On behalf of Anna and her family, we sincerely appreciate anything you can do to help support these efforts. We also asked Anna to pen her story in her words (which is much more valuable than ours!) below.

Thank you so much for anything you are doing to support Ukraine,

Kyle, Pia, & family

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I came to your beautiful country from Mykolaiv, Ukraine. My city is on the border of the fighting. It is our soldiers who are now holding back Russian troops from seizing the entire South of Ukraine.

On February 24, 2022, my life changed radically, I could not even imagine that such a thing could happen. For me, family is not just people close by blood, it is my life, my pride. At home we had a family full of love and support.

I got an education in Marketing and management, but 10 years ago, my brother and I decided to try do noble work that brings good - we decided to organize a family farm, and later my husband and my father began working with us. For a Ukrainian, the greatest opportunity you can have is land and the ability to grow crops on it. We had a large farm - 21,000 cherry trees, 3,000 peach, 8000 plum, wheat, sunflower, Garlic were also grown. It was our life - from preparing the soil, planting seedlings, processing, pruning trees, we went through all the stages together with our workers. It's hard work, but when you see the harvest and realize that you are giving people healthy food, it brings you a lot of joy. Unfortunately, after February 24, only experience remained from our business, which I will try to use in the future in Canada.

With the outbreak of the war, my family broke up into small pieces. My parents stayed in my city, as well as my grandfather, who hears rockets coming through the city every day. He refuses to leave the city, since this is his land, and he will not run away from it. My city has been without water for 4 months. My father takes care of my grandfather, provides him with water, food, and medicines. My mother helps in the volunteer kitchen, cooking food for people who have now lost their jobs and funds to buy groceries due to the constant shelling of the city. I am proud of my parents, despite all the difficulties and trials, they do not give up.

I have an older brother, his wife and a nephew. On the first day of the war, he went and volunteered for the army to defend his country. Now my sister-in-law and nephew are in Bulgaria. Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has adopted a law that men from 18 to 60 years old cannot leave the country. After almost 6 months of the war, my brother was only able to meet his son once at the border of the country last week, to talk for 20 minutes. This is the photo I sent to Kyle for this posting. Iit breaks my heart, my nephew does not understand why he cannot return home with his dad and live in his house. My sister-in-law has now passed biometrics for Canada and should soon get a visa for herself and her son. I hope that soon I will be able to meet this part of the family in Canada. It will be hard for them - a new language, a new place, a new school - but they will be safe and, like me, will fall in love with the beauty of Canada, with the amazing people here who are always ready to lend you help.

My husband and I met 17 years ago and in all that time we have never been apart for more than a week. Now our separation is more than 5 months. When all this horror came to our land, my husband gave me 10 minutes to get ready and took me to the border, and he returned to defend Ukraine. Now he is helping with the delivery of volunteer food and medicines to remote villages on the front line, which are under fire daily, where elderly people and people with disabilities who cannot leave their homes remain. I am very proud of him. Every day I ask heaven that all my family members who are now in Ukraine remain alive and well. So that our soldiers could stand and defend our country! Now my life consists of waiting every hour for someone close to me to call and tell me that everything is fine with them.

I want to thank Canada! Canadians are amazing! Here you feel that you are not alone, you have not been abandoned, you are important and needed, you are not a refugee, you are a person who deserves a decent life and this support does not allow you to fall into depression. Because we all already had a life - houses, cars, work, family and plans for the future.

Now I'm back at the start, but I'm not taking new steps alone. You Canadians are incredible! Thank you!

Anna