Ed. note: the first two parts of this three-part series were published last Friday and last Monday.

Lesia Hnatiw identifies as a Ukrainian Canadian, as her family is from a part of Poland on the eastern border that used to be a part of Ukraine.

“My roots are Ukrainian and so I went to Ukrainian school and did Ukrainian dance in the Ukrainian community in the prairies and so you know those are my roots, right? And so, when the war started, it was a very personal kind of thing for me,” she told the Star recently.

“I was shocked, angry, couldn’t believe it was happening, and I wanted to do something.

“And I had no military experience; I don’t have any medical experience. So there wasn’t something really concrete that I could do at the beginning. I felt very compelled to do something when the war started,” Hnatiw added.

She said there wasn’t anything she could do at that time so an association was formed with others who wanted to help.

“We started fundraising, and then it became clear that well, we can fundraise to make money to buy supplies, humanitarian supplies, and so it kind of stemmed from that.” she said.

Hnatiw speaks Ukrainian herself.

She said it wasn’t easy, but it was helpful and the Ukrainian people were surprised.

“To be honest, they couldn’t believe that I spoke Ukrainian coming from Canada.

“I think stuff like that just kind of lifts them up. They’re like, ‘Wow,’ you know they loved that and when I told them that I went to Ukrainian school as a kid.

“I know that there are communities in Canada where we are holding on to the Ukrainian culture because it is dear to us,” she said.

“Because we know right now Russia is trying to obliterate Ukrainian people simply because they are Ukrainian, like the culture, everything.

“We were sitting around at a restaurant at dinnertime and when I was telling them about this, they were brought to tears, that it was so important for my mom and dad to teach us our language, our culture,” she said.

Reimchen and Hnatiw both mentioned that the Google Translate program helped out too, and made them more connected.

“Here’s kind of a funny thing,” Hnatiw said.

“Google Translate changed the world. Even if you don’t know the language, you just type in whatever you want to say and you can Google Translate it, and so it’s made the world a lot more connected that way.”

Based on what she witnessed in Ukraine, Reimchen said, support and donations are very important.

“If you’re interested in donating money like monetary funds, the more local and direct that you’re able to give that donation to, the more effectiveness it’s going to have,” she said.

“There’s a large sentiment that the big international organizations are useless. And what we saw, it’s these little chains of volunteer teams that are getting stuff where it’s needed and where it’s used.

“For example, in Chortkiv, where I was with the volunteers, I saw their little facility they work out of, and the shelves are basically empty.

“They make trips to the frontlines once a month. And so they’re spending money as they get it, supplies that get donated to them are not sitting there unused.

“The stuff we brought, within a couple of weeks, it was at the front. So I think for people who are wanting to give financial support, finding context, finding the small organizations that are actually accomplishing something, that’s how stuff gets done.”

She said the Ukrainian Canadian Association of Yukon (UCAY) collects donations through the Whitehorse firefighters’ charitable society so people can obtain income tax receipts.

“If people want to give money to them, they have a designated Yukon-to-Ukraine fund.

“We have a pretty good track record at this point of spending the money on stuff that’s directly helping people.

“So yeah, for local people here, I think we’re doing an honourable job with the money we are entrusted with,” 
she continued.

Hnatiw said every little bit matters, and she would encourage people to check out the UCAY.

“Those funds, those donations go directly to medical aid that we will use to bring more medications, like more medical aid to Ukraine. So that’s one way that Yukoners can help.”

The association will continue to put out information on its Facebook page around collecting donations “because winter’s coming.

“And one thing that we did last fall and last winter was collect donations for the military, like boots, and thermal underwear, things like that. We are still going to be collecting over-the-counter medications, things like that,” she said.

The territory has “lots of Ukrainian immigrants that have come here that have been forced to make a decision to leave Ukraine, which is awful,” Hnatiw added.

“A lot of them don’t want to be in another country; they had lives, they had homes, they have businesses they had, they’ve left family members there.

“And so that in itself we can support our Ukrainians here,” she continued.

Reimchen said she would be interested in travelling to Ukraine again.

As of their return, they have been debriefing with their board and team members about their experience.

“The hospital, they’ve already given us the next list of medications that are in short supply,” Reimchen said.

Of the requested medical equipment, she said, there’s one piece that’s a more substantial investment that they had started looking into procuring before they ran out of time and left.

“But I want to pick up that thread again,” Reimchen added.

Hnatiw said her husband knew even before she left originally that she was talking about the “next trip.

“My husband is so supportive, and understands that this is something very important to me. And, yeah, I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to go and transport more aid or do whatever I can.

“I feel very strongly that once the war is over and the rebuilding starts, I’ve kind of had these ideas of how we can help in some way with that.”

Hnatiw said this is one thing that regular Yukoners can think about after the war.

“After the war, there’s gonna be a huge need for construction workers, for engineers or whatever; people that can help with the structural building, rebuilding.

“There’s a lot that we can do. I think we just have to imagine it and have the will and the desire and then obviously have the backing of the financial support to procure supplies or whatever, but yeah, there’s a lot we can do,” Hnatiw said.