After arriving in Italy from Ukraine, Liubov Bastriukova felt like she might have found a second home. A family let her stay with them, and she found work at a clothing store in Milan.
“Thanks to this job I have the prospect of becoming independent and one day being able to live with my two families, the Italian one and the Ukrainian one,” Bastriukova, of Kharkiv, told La Difesa del Populo, an Italian newspaper.
She is one of the more than 6.2 million people (as estimated by the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR) who have fled Ukraine since Russia began its war in February 2022.
Helping children learn
Groups such as Milan-based AVSI Foundation, which helped Bastriukova find a job, are helping others like her adjust to life abroad. In August, AVSI completed its second summer camp for youth, helping children and adolescents among the more than 160,000 Ukrainian refugees estimated to have arrived in Italy.
Camp activities, such as trips to the seaside and Milan’s historic center, show Ukrainian children the history and culture of their new home. AVSI, which supports humanitarian and development projects in 40 countries, will continue to support Ukrainian youth in Italy with after-school activities.
In Rome, host to more than 13,000 Ukrainian refugees, the Intersos 24 Center offers Ukrainian women Italian language classes and guidance on how to access health care and enroll their children in school.
‘You can find work’
Like Bastriukova, many others have found themselves in unfamiliar countries and unexpected new homes … and succeeding.
Darya felt welcomed in Poland after she arrived from Zaporizhzhia in March 2022. UNHCR provided money for food and clothes. She later found a job and an apartment in Krakow and a school for her two young children. “You can find work, make friends and acquaintances that will help you in all they can,” Darya told UNHCR in March 2023. “And there are volunteers who will help you too.”
Maksym Bunchukov is one of 160 Ukrainian refugees to arrive in North Dakota, a U.S. state that has long been home to people of Ukrainian descent, according to Voice of America. Bunchukov is from Zaporizhzhia and arrived as part of a program that finds refugees jobs in or around oil fields in the state.
Finding community
By the time Olha Zharko arrived in Canada in March 2023, she, her mother and young son had spent more than a year being uncertain of where they would end up. Once in Canada, she was able to find a job with her former employer in Ukraine, which also had offices in Calgary. The city is host to 20,000 of Canada’s 200,000 Ukrainian refugees, according to the Centre for Newcomers, an organization that supports refugees.
Zharko remains separated from her husband by war and unsure of what the future holds. “I don’t know now when my husband could come here or [if] we can come to Ukraine,” she told CBC News. “But of course, we want to be together.”
Like Zharko, Bastriukova longs for an end to the war. Until its end, “I would like to continue living in Italy, a country that is now my second home,” she says.
Source : ShareAmerica
