How can Canadians help with the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine?

Jordan Much of the discussion around what countries like Canada are doing to help Ukraine has focused on military aid. It’s a more controversial topic with nuanced policy on either side. And of course, there is simply more tension in a story about exactly how far NATO allies can push Russia before we risk a bigger war. But as valiantly as the Ukrainian military is fighting, there is a bigger disaster taking shape.

News Clip (Translated) They bombed everything. 60% of people have left. There’s nothing left behind, no kindergartens, schools, post offices. She left after her neighbor’s house was struck by a bomb two days ago.

Jordan One of the questions that we’ve heard most on the invasion from our listeners is simple: how can I help? It can be daunting in a situation like this to figure out where your time, money and effort can make the biggest difference. There are no shortage of organizations doing work for Ukrainians still in their cities under fire or for those who have fled with the clothes on their backs. The needs are huge and varied. So today we will try to break down what you can do from right here, how you can do it, where to start, and where the victims of this war will gain the most from it.

I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings, this is The Big Story. Orest Zakydalsky is the senior policy adviser for the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Orest, thanks for joining us today.

Orest Zakydalsky Thanks for having me.

Jordan Can you maybe begin, I know this isn’t easy, but by giving us a sense of the scope of the civilian crisis in this war, how many have fled Ukraine? How many people need help?

Orest Zakydalsky So this is probably the greatest humanitarian crisis, certainly in Europe since World War II. In a month, about 4 million people have left Ukraine, and in Ukraine, about 10 million people are displaced from their homes. This is in a country with a population of about 40 million people. So 10% of the population has been forced to leave, and a quarter of the population is internally displaced.

Jordan That’s a staggering amount. What do we know about how many people have been injured or killed? I know it can be really hard to get reliable figures amidst the chaos, but just trying to get a sense of how awful this is.

Orest Zakydalsky I mean, the amount of people killed, of civilians killed is certainly in the thousands, if not more. I mean, you’re right. It’s very difficult to get accurate numbers on these types of things. But the Russians are attacking cities with airpower and with artillery and cruise missiles. Cities like Mariupol, Mariupol is a city of 400,000 people in the Southeast of Ukraine that has been essentially destroyed. There are still civilians there. The Russian forces that have encircled it are not allowing for humanitarian corridors. Again, 400,000 people within a matter of a couple of weeks have had their entire city destroyed. That is probably the worst situation right now is in Mariupol. But there are also terrible situations in Kharkiv, which is in Eastern Ukraine, which is also under heavy bombardment, and other cities, Kyiv the capital also is being bombed. So it is something that is very kind of difficult to fathom happening in the 21st century.

Jordan This is small comfort, no doubt, but one of the questions we’ve repeatedly heard from listeners is trying to find specific ways they can help Ukrainian civilians who need it. And so that’s why you’re here today. And maybe we’ll just start with our own government. We’ve talked a lot about military aid that various governments are sending to Ukraine. What is the Canadian government doing to help Ukrainian civilians right now?

Orest Zakydalsky Well, so there’s actually three issues to this, right? One is to get help to the people who are in Ukraine. The second is to get help to the people who have left Ukraine and are in Poland and other bordering countries in the west. And the third is trying to help Ukrainians come here and find shelter and refuge in Canada until the war ends. So on the first two, the Canadian government is providing funds to international organizations like the Red Cross and UNHCR and others. The problem we’re seeing with that aid getting to the people in Ukraine is that it is difficult to get humanitarian aid into the country because, frankly, because the Russians are not letting it in. So there is not safe passage for aid to get in. And in those situations, the international organizations are not functioning as they should be.

For the people who have fled and are in Western borders of Ukraine, the bordering countries, the situation is a bit better. But again, Poland, which is a country of 30 million people within three or four weeks, has accepted 3 million people into it. And that is an incredible humanitarian crisis in Poland to deal with just that amount of people. There is aid getting to those people. People in these bordering countries are taking people into their homes, doing what they can.

And then the third part is getting people to Canada. So the Canadian government has announced emergency travel authorization for Ukrainian citizens, which basically makes applying for and getting a visa to come to Canada easier and is offering work permits and stays of up to three years. The problem is that there is as yet and we are talking to the government about this, but as yet, there are no federal supports for these people. So you’re talking about a population of people who, about 90% of those who’ve left Ukraine are women and children. And so to expect that people can land here and within a matter of days find housing and employment is unrealistic. And so we are asking the federal government to develop a program of at least 90 day transition supports for these displaced people who are coming here. So that’s kind of the three areas in which the government is working.

Jordan I’m glad you sort of broke it up into those three segments, because I was also going to start with straight money that people have and want to give. And I think one of the things that we’ve heard is there is a sense in terms of giving to programs like the Red Cross or Medicins Sans Frontieres that it’s got a long way to go before it gets into the hands of the people who really need it. And it’s difficult to get it directly to Ukrainians. So if people do want to give cash, what works best and fastest and gets right to Ukrainians on the ground?

Orest Zakydalsky So, we are, together with the Canada Ukraine Foundation, running a humanitarian appeal, where basically there are local partners on the ground there that we work with to get things into Ukraine. And so we’ve managed to, thanks to the generosity of Canadians, raise millions of dollars for this effort. Over $5 million of aid has been deployed already through our program. And so I don’t want to get into the specifics of how and what and where we’re delivering this stuff because of the security situation in Ukraine. But we are delivering it with partners on the ground there. So people can go to our website, UCC.Ca, or the website of the Canada Ukraine Foundation, which is cufoundation.Ca, and find out how to donate to that effort.

The second thing we’re doing is getting together people who can help with the displaced people who are coming here. So again, on our website, there’s forms that people can fill out if they’re willing to take people into their homes or provide employment or provide assistance to people. It’s a fairly easy process to fill it out. And we’re working with local settlement agencies here to deliver that assistance to people who will be coming to Canada.

Jordan I want to talk more about that process in a minute because there’s a lot to it. But first, beyond money, what about actual goods and aid packages? I am seeing some community groups banding together to put together packages of things that might be of use to either displaced people or people stuck in Ukraine who can’t leave. Is that more helpful or less helpful than giving money? And how do they even get, as you pointed out, the Russians are not letting much in there, how difficult is it to get physical goods into that country rather than funds?

Orest Zakydalsky Well, so what I would say is that everything is helpful. For people who have things they want to donate, basically, find your local Ukrainian Church, or your local Ukrainian organization. And pretty much all of them are involved in this now. So some of that is going to be for people who are coming here. And some of that is going to Poland, Romania, Czech, Slovakia, other countries where there are displaced people. And some of it is going to Ukraine. I mean, it is challenging, but not impossible to get things in. It requires some nimbleness that perhaps the larger international organizations do not have, and we fortunately do have.

Really, the entire Ukrainian community here is mobilized helping people. So really just find your local Ukrainian organization or reach out to the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and we will put you in touch with people who are helping. Everyone is involved in this. And I will say that although these are very difficult times, it is truly an honour to be able to work with these people and to see how they’re responding to them.

Jordan How important is it that Canadians step up here? I know we’ve spoken since the beginning of this war about the huge Ukrainian population in Canada, I think, second only to Ukrainians in Russia. How much is that population being counted on to help people get out of the country, help them get what they need, et cetera?

Orest Zakydalsky Well, I mean, our community, as I said, is certainly stepping up. And what we need is more support from the federal government.

Jordan What do you need from the government? Just money or other stuff?

Orest Zakydalsky If we’re talking about helping displaced people, what we need is a program in place for the federal government that offers these people support. And so that’s 90 days transition. I mean, a lot of these people will need help with trauma that they’ve suffered through war, these kinds of things. So really, the government, which has announced that they are willing to accept a lot of people, also has a responsibility to then help them when they do accept them.

And frankly, even from the beginning, things like helping them get here. Right now, the way the program is set up is like, yeah, you can come to Canada, but you got to figure out how you get here. And there are volunteer groups that are helping with this, but there needs to be a government program that assists people in coming here. So starting from there and then when they do come to Canada, there has to be programs in place that assist them until they can get on their feet and working and supporting themselves. So we’ve been in constant contact with the Department of Immigration and the Minister’s office on this and have presented a whole list of recommendations that we think the government should implement.

Jordan So that brings me back to ordinary Canadians who want to help, and I’m curious about the process. If somebody wants to host a displaced person you mentioned it starts on your website with a form, what should people expect? How fast does this happen? What will those people need when they get here?

Orest Zakydalsky Well, I think it depends a lot on who the people are. So if someone is, let’s say, a mother who has a small child, whose father or her husband is fighting in the wars, in the army in Ukraine, someone who has a small child needs child care before they can go to work. The kids will be able to get into schools, but I mean, if your child is two years old, he or she is not going to school. Canadians who are willing to host people, the process is basically, I mean, if you give us your information, we get it to the settlement agencies that are in your town or region. There’s a check that they do, and these agencies are professionals at this and know how to do it. And then after that, someone will come and stay with you. So that’s sort of the process is let us know that you’re willing to host someone, you will be contacted by a local settlement agency, and then someone will come and stay with you.

Jordan You mentioned that there’s not really a program to help these people get here right now. I’m also wondering if we know anything about how many Ukrainians will be coming to Canada. Is there any limit on that? Has the government said anything about it or is it just as many people as can get here we’ll take?

Orest Zakydalsky So there is no limit on the amount of people who can apply through the emergency travel authorization. We know that since the programs opened, there has apparently been thousands of applications. It is virtually impossible to be able to tell how many people exactly would be coming, but certainly from what it looks like from applications, it’s in the thousands right now. And the actual program has only been online for a few days. So that’s bound to grow. There’s a second stream as well, which is family reunification, that’s people who are here in Canada who have relatives in Ukraine. We’re talking to the government about broadening the definition of people who are eligible to apply for that from immediate family to a broader circle, cousins, aunts uncles, et cetera. There’s 1.4 million Ukrainians in Canada. Many of us have relatives there who would need to come over. So there’s probably in the thousands there as well.

Jordan What kind of giving or aid isn’t quite as helpful as people might think, like where are energy and resources being spent right now that might be better used elsewhere?

Orest Zakydalsky Look, I would say that there really isn’t an answer to that because the needs are so immense. It really is kind of anything people can do to help is more than welcome. What we would ask, too, though, is that when someone does decide to help, when you contact your local Church, your local Ukrainian organization, that you speak to them about what they’re doing and how they’re coordinating their assistance rather than kind of show up, because there are so many people doing so many things that it’s important to have some coordination with local organizations who are working on this. But again, look, anything from shipping aid, even things like we’ve had people, lawyers, who are willing to do pro Bono work on certain issues. The spectrum of things that are needed is so broad that there really is no right or wrong thing to be doing. And we certainly welcome any and all opportunities for people to come and help out with this.

Jordan That’s great to hear. I want to ask just one more thing if I could, just because hopefully at some point really soon this war will be over. Are you guys thinking right now about how your strategy will have to change when that happens? Will it happen? What are you thinking about if you’re thinking about it at all when the conflict ends?

Orest Zakydalsky Well, I mean, look, right now we’re focused entirely on helping Ukraine win this war and on helping people who have been affected by it. There is going to be an enormous amount of work that has to be done after the war is over and after what I have absolutely no doubt will be a Ukrainian victory in the war. But right now we have to focus on the immediate needs of these people who have been affected by war and we will get to the reconstruction and rebuilding and all that after victory.

Jordan I hope we see that soon. Orest, thank you so much for this. I really appreciate it. If you would, could you just give those website addresses one more time?

Orest Zakydalsky So the website of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is UCC.ca. The website of the Canada Ukraine Foundation is cufoundation.ca.

Jordan Orest Zakydalsky of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. That was The Big Story, for more from us, head to thebigstorypodcast.ca, find us on Twitter at @TheBigStoryFPN, and talk to us anytime via email, thebigstorypodcast@rci.rogers.com [click here!]. You can find this podcast in every podcast player, literally. You can also ask for it with your smart speaker by saying “play the Big Story podcast.”

Thanks for listening. I’m Jordan Heath-Rawlings. We’ll talk tomorrow.

Back to top of page