Ukrainian Refugee Housing & Essentials Fundraiser.

We raised $3000 before this GoFundMe was set up! A big thank you to Jackie Perrin and the Pinnacle 20/20 Foundation for your contributions.

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Hi, my name is Ksenia, I came to Canada in 2009 where I met my husband Dan and where we have grown our roots together, we are from very different parts of the world, but today both of our hearts belong to Ukraine.

I woke up on February 24th to news that I had never believed would become real. I noticed my Dan sitting next to me nervously, he looked at me with sadness in his eyes and told me he was sorry, but the invasion of Ukraine is now real, it started while we were asleep.

It was immediately heartbreaking, yet it still took me a few days to realize the magnitude of tragedy in Ukraine.

Once it all sunk in, I realized that I have to do something to help, and I have to start now. The first thing I could think of was to reach out to Ukrainians in Calgary and offer to host their relatives or friends who were fleeing the war if they did not have enough room to accommodate.  Unfortunately, at that time the Canadian Government had failed to act and had not yet lifted the Visa requirements, so many relatives of the Ukrainian community were not yet able to come.

Early in March I learned of an international website that was connecting people willing to offer their house to host refugees at no cost. I immediately registered on the site with our details. The number of responses, and the tragic stories from each family was instantly overwhelming. We can only accommodate one family at a time, how am I to choose? It felt impossible.

Eventually, I gathered myself and determined that we are best positioned to assist a young family of six, with four daughters between the ages and 2 and 12, that had reached out. They had fled from Irpin and made it to Berlin, upon learning that a shell had hit and destroyed their home after they fled, they began to focus on a plan for their new life. They will arrive in Calgary on April 8th, 2022.

Once we had agreed to take them in and host them until they can find a suitable place to live, I started collecting items for them as they are arriving with one suitcase and a few carry-on bags, literally all they could carry when they fled Ukraine.

I was quickly overwhelmed by the response from Russian-Ukrainian community with offers of donations of many gently used items. People are ready to part with couches, dishes, clothes, toys and many more items. The donations soon amounted to much more than the family might need, and through this process I am learning of families that have already arrived that are in need. With the large amount of donations, and the knowledge of arrival families, my next step is to facilitate the flow of material donations in our garage while and connecting the items with arriving families.

In addition to making the arrangements for our initial host family, I have been in constant contact with many other families, sharing my knowledge about Canada, about different resources they could use, looking for accommodations for them, helping with translating their documents, etc.

My goal is now clear, I intend to help as many families as I can to establish their new lives in Calgary, and other areas of Canada to the best of my abilities. The initial goal of this fund-raising effort, with the help of the Pinnacle 2020 Foundation, is to assist the arriving family with finding suitable and affordable accommodations and subsidise a portion of their first year of rent and to ensure they can still put food on the table and even put the girls into activities so they can start over and then find the next family as soon as possible to host and assist. The Pinnacle 2020 Foundation offers tax deductible receipts for donations of $50 or more and will continue to raise money for new families as the need remains high.

Here are some of the responses, at least the ones in English, that I received after offering our home. Names removed for privacy; the first response is from the initial family we will host.

My name is _____. I’m a citizen of Ukraine, my family (wife and 4 girls (12, 8, 5 and 2 years old) a month ago were forced to leave our home to seek a peaceful place to stay. I managed to rent an apartment in Berlin and apply for a Canadian visa. We are planning a trip to Canada (Calgary) on 8 april, tickets purchased. I found your accommodation at https://icanhelp.host I wonder if is it still actual? We just need a place to stay for a couple days/one week so I can find a permanent flat/house. Best regards, _____

Hello, is your offer to accommodate refugees from Ukraine still valid?  We are currently located in Warsaw, Poland.  We are 5 people, 2 adults and 3 children aged 12, 13 and 16.  On the 24th of February we received the news that a war had begun in Ukraine.  The next day, the parents decided to leave.  We stood on the border with Moldova for a whole day!  Then we went through Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and only then we got to Poland.

Hello, my name is _____, I am 42 years old. I found your offer on the site where you offered your help in accommodating Ukrainians who are fleeing the war. me and my son, he is 13 years old. submitted documents to the embassy and are waiting for a decision on the approval of the visa. could you take us for a while?

Good day! We are a large family from Ukraine. My name is _____, I am a primary school teacher. I am 32 years old. My husband’s name is _____, he is 37 years old. He works as a foreman for the installation of gas pipes. We do not know English well, but we have a great desire to learn! We are not afraid of different work. We have 2 sons, _____ is 7 years old and _____ is 5 years old and a daughter _____ is 2 years old. We really want to meet on our way a decent and good person (family) who will help us in a new place. Approximately we have to open a visa from April 7-12. Thank you for your attention!

Ksenia hi ! My name is _____, I have just read your announcement regarding accommodation in Canada. We are now in Ukraine. And only planning to receive the visa I would like to ask you where better to fly, to which city and what are the conditions that you offer? The thing is – I am going to come with my 3 years old daughter without my husband ( he is not allowed to exit cause of war)

Hi, We a family from 3 persons man _____ 32 y.o., Woman 30 y.o. and daughter 3,8 y.o.. My experience 12 years in Bank and Financial company. Wife work in pharmacy (like Bayer company). We looking for a place to live, work, kindergarten. Are you can some help for us? We are now in Germany.

Hi, I have found your contact on the icanhelp. host portal. My wife, our one year old son and myself left Ukraine due to the state of war. We are currently located in the Czech Republic, but desperately seeking for some ways to immigrate to Canada. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is currently working on some path to help Ukrainians in need to fast track immigration procedures. Are you still able to provide accommodation for Ukrainians? If so, will you allow us to stay at your place, or at least for my wife and our son? We are not smokers, you will not have any problems with us. I am 32, working professional in finance, IT and my wife is 28, civil engineer. We are much appreciated to you and other people for helping in such a difficult times. Regards, _____

Good day. My family is from Ukraine and we need your help in Calgary. If your housing offer is still relevant, please email me _____@gmail.com

Hello Ksenia. My name is _____. I found your contact on www.icanhelp.host.

We are family of 5 from Odesa, Ukraine. Myself, my wife, twin boys 5yo and daughter 3yo. We left our country three weeks ago and currently we are in Bulgaria. We consider to move to Alberta, Canada. Could you help us with accommodation till we find job and permanent housing? Thank you.

hello, my name is _____, my sister and I and my 3-year-old son are seeking refuge, I have a sphinx cat, we have nowhere to live, can we come to you?

My name is _____, I am 32 years old. Together with my mother and brother (16 years old), I left Ukraine and now we are doing the paperwork to move to Calgary. Wanted to know if your offer to host a family is still valid or if you have already found someone to stay with you?

Hello. My neme is _____. I am from Ukraine. I hope to travel to Canada from Ukraine. With me boys 8 and 15 years old. I saw your post on the I CAN HELP HOST website. You offer to take advantage of your hospitality. Me and my family will be happy to be safe. I don’t speak English, bat I have a very strong desire to learn English. We really want to live in your beautiful country

Hello Ksenia, My name is _____, I am 21 and I am a university student from Kyiv, Ukraine. My mom (she is a lawyer in Ukraine), my younger brother (he is 15 and he goes to school), and I have fled Ukraine because of the war and have found temporary shelter in Poland. We said goodbye to dad at the border and he stayed behind in Ukraine. The three of us have submitted applications for the special Visa program that the Canadian government has created for the Ukrainian people. We are very grateful for this opportunity but this is still a difficult decision to make during such a hard time. We don’t have any friends or family in Canada, who would be able to somehow support us while we figure out how to provide for ourselves without our dad.

I saw your post on the “I can help host” website and decided to check if you are still offering to host a family from Ukraine, and I was also wondering if you are hosting for free or maybe providing discounts for Ukrainians. We hope that our Visa application will be approved soon and we really want to come to Canada. We are afraid to move without having anywhere to stay at the beginning of our life in Canada and we would be very grateful if somebody could host us and help us to get used to Canadian life. Please let me know if you’re still willing to host a family. Kindest regards _____

LUCINDA LUNCH PROGRAM

We are thankful for our ability to earn an income in Canada.  Those in the communities in rural Honduras do not  have the same opportunity.   Pinnacle 20/20 has been donating funds to help with education, healthcare and alleviate poverty in the villages  of Colon Honduras.  To bring lasting change to these communities we believe it starts with the children…the future leaders…the world changers.  One of the easiest and most beneficial ways to help these kids is to provide a daily lunch program in the schools.  Most children gon to school without eating breakfast and if they have a lunch it is seldom a healthy, nutritious one. The outcomes of poor nutrition are poor academic performance and lowered mental capacity decreasing opportunity to better themselves for the future.  It affects not only individual students but communities as a whole.

So How Can We Help?

The Goals for 2020

LUNCH PROGRAM

Provide supplies needed to set up and conduct  a daily lunch program starting February (new school year) 2020 for the elementary school in the village of Naranjal and Margarita, Colon, Honduras.  The program would be continuing to  feed 150 children lunch 3 days a week.   The public schools in this area have no support from government or other charities for school supplies, uniforms or lunch programs.

Supplies needed to complete this goal would be:

• Provide a large stove and propane tank, propane as well as pots to cook – $405
• Provide vitamin fortified rice and beans as well as supplemental food items to add to the rice and beans including eggs, vegetables, spices,  and flour for tortillas on special occasions – About 75 cents per day/child for 108 school days in 2020.
• Uniforms and supplies
• Total cost is only $81 Cdn per child per year!

As soon as this goal is met we would like to be able to provide funds for building a small bathroom with running water for both schools as they use an outhouse.

Diane Ward will be helping Darvin and Kim Zurfluh manage the lunch program and provide proper governance and oversight.