The Pylypenkos to Canada: Nourish Their Landing

Meet the Pylypenko family - Anton, Oksana, Andrii and baby Mark.

Today they live on the uppermost floor of an old family farmhouse in Vegreville, Alberta.

Last month they uprooted from their homeland of Cherkasy, Ukraine in hopes of planting new seedlings of stability in Canadian soil.

They need some water, fertile soil, sunlight and nutrients to grow here.

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Anton Pylypenko, a Translator/Interpreter from Ukraine meets Natalia Toroshenko, an International Election Observer from Canada, stationed in Cherkasy oblast with a Canadian election observation mission. Over the next 8 years, Anton and Natalia would partner together on many missions meant to support Ukraine’s budding democracy, with Anton’s trusted brother Sasha, as their driver. On days off, Anton would help Natalia connect to her father’s homelands of nearby Poltava, where much of her family still lives.

After Russia declares war on Ukraine, Natalia messages dozens of family and friends, concerned for their safety. Anton responds and the conversation about them fleeing the country for Canada begins.

Anton and his wife Oksana apply for CUAET, the Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel program, which allows applicants to live and work in the country for up to 3 years including access to medicine and education. Anton’s brother, Sasha, enlists and is sent to the front to begin active service. Natalia and her husband Ostap begin renovating a suite in their house to welcome a family with a full kitchen and pantry, toddler proof railings and Ukrainian books and art so they’ll feel at home.

That’s how old Andrii is, Anton and Oksana’s eldest son. He’s a gifted basketball player. Three weeks ago he started school at A.L.Horton Elementary in Vegreville where, thankfully, several staff and a few kids speak Ukrainian. Though he doesn’t speak English, he speaks basketball.

Baby Mark! Lucky little bun is held in the arms of his mother most of the time because she doesn’t have a carrier of any sort. He’s boisterous as it is and extra fussy during the mentally and emotionally taxing journey from Cherkasy to Canada.

The family has packed up all their belongings and left their warring homeland behind. One-way tickets to Canada purchased with every last hryvnia to their name. 3 hours driving north from Cherkasy to Kyiv. 10 hour train southwest from Kyiv to Mukachevo. 1 hour train Mukachevo to Chop, on the border with Hungary. Here, Anton is stopped because two days ago the law permitting men with disability status to leave the country has changed and his diabetes no longer permits him exit. They are told to return to Cherkasy for missing paperwork. The family miss their connections - buses, trains, flights, all of it non-refundable - while stuck in transit limbo, baby on board. They spend the next 4 days sleeping in meager conditions on the Ukraine-Hungary border while Anton wrangles the paperwork he needs from across the country so the family can stay together. Anton’s brother Sasha is sent to eastern Ukraine where active fighting has been going on for 8 years.

By the grace of God (Slava Bohu!), several generous volunteers and a several thousand dollar loan to rebook it all, the journey continues. What was meant to be 3 days has become 8 by the time the four land in frigid blizzard conditions at Edmonton International Airport where Natalia and Ostap pick them up.

The old family farmhouse in Vegreville has young children in it again - fertile soil. Andrii plays pick-up basketball with new friends - sunlight. Oksana and Anton are meeting the other Ukrainians who’ve relocated to Vegreville - water. The family is finding work, community and stability again, trying to establish themselves in a new life.

The generous funds that come from this campaign will be their nutrients. The basics that are needed to live and establish a family anew - food, transportation, diapers, medicine.