Every Thursday afternoon at Ottawa’s Café Ukraine, behind the “Quiet Please – Class in Session” sign, Lisa Hrynuik and Mariia Baziuk are practicing English. Hrynuik, Baziuk’s tutor, plays the part of a patient describing her symptoms, while Baziuk intently listens to piece together a diagnosis.
For Baziuk, this isn’t just role playing. Having completed her medical training in Ukraine and having practiced in Poland, she hopes mastering English will help her obtain medical recertification in Canada.
The journey back to her profession hasn’t been easy. Not only is the test expensive, with a nerve-wracking $3,500 exam looming four months away, but the language barrier adds an additional layer of challenge.
“I’m very nervous about the oral part,” of the recertification test, Baziuk admitted. The test also has a written requirement.
In April 2024, just a month after arriving in Canada, Baziuk began practicing English within a free Conversation Program with tutors like Hrynuik.
Baziuk said the program has been a huge help increasing her confidence.
“The main benefit is that I can always come here and speak in English and my teachers are great teachers,” she said. “And I feel that my levels improved really fast.”
As the world marks the third anniversary of Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine, Ottawa volunteers and advocacy groups supporting people such as Baziuk are reflecting on community resilience but also shedding light on the challenges newcomers face rebuilding their lives in Canada.
Three years into the war, international support for Ukraine has dwindled. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress organized a Feb. 23 rally in Ottawa to remind Canada that the war in Ukraine remains an existential threat to that country and that Ukrainians in Canada are struggling to rebuild their lives.
Daria Furtak, a fourth-year finance student at the University of Ottawa and president of the Ukrainian Students Club (USC) at the university, said it’s never been more important to support Ukraine.
“It’s been three years and so it’s easy to sometimes forget or even put it aside and not think of it as a priority. … But it’s important more than ever for us to keep that conversation going,” she said.
“Ukraine is not just fighting for itself, it’s fighting for all the values that we as a Western society believe in. It’s fighting for sovereignty and the issue of one nation respecting the others’ borders.”
— Daria Furtak, president of the Ukrainian Students Club at uOttawa
Furtak said the USC has hosted events at Café Ukraine to connect students with the rest of the Ukrainian community in Ottawa.
She said the impact on Ukrainians everywhere should be seen as a ripple effect across the global community and wants to see more international support to help Ukrainians get through the war.
“Ukraine is not just fighting for itself, it’s fighting for all the values that we as a Western society believe in,” she said. “It’s fighting for sovereignty and the issue of one nation respecting the others’ borders.”
Since March 2022, about 298,000 people have arrived in Canada under the federal Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program. The visa allows Ukrainian nationals to stay in Canada for up to three years.
With the war showing no end in sight, many Ukrainians are now filing their permanent residency applications, with many extending their CUAET visa.
But not all want to stay in Canada permanently, according to Hrynuik, a volunteer ESL program coordinator.
Hrynuik said many use the program to make their daily lives easier before returning to Ukraine.
Volunteers are now showing up for classes “earlier and earlier or staying later and later and just talking,” she said.
“And we just knew we were building community.”
The program has 94 active students and 41 different classes every week, according to Hrynuik, one of 22 volunteer tutors in the program.
But the program is not a one-way street. Community members like Baziuk are staying after hours to help clean up on the days she receives tutoring.
“Sometimes they don’t have enough volunteers,” she said. “On Wednesdays and Thursdays there are less (volunteers) because it’s daytime and people are working,” she said.
While the community members support each other, Baziuk said similar support from the Canadian and international community is important during the hardest times of the war.
“It’s very important to support Ukraine because people need this,” she said. “Our resources, they don’t last forever.”
