HILLSIDE Volunteers provide a variety of services to Ukrainian refugees

pora, with 1.4million Canadians claiming that heritage.

She helps the children learn English, while two other former teachers, Jean Healey-Martin and Virginia Burns, give lessons to the adults at the residence.

“The children there are very receptive to it, are really quite thrilled to be learning English and, between this and school, what we’re doing is really helping them,” said Erdman.

Additionally, two former principals, including Judy Dunn-Keighan, have been helping to enroll youngsters at local schools.

Inside the residence, the Ukrainians also have plenty of space to socialize, including in the kitchen, where a few were sat chatting when The Observer visited.

The lodgers are also entertained by visits from Martin’s lolloping, 10-week-old white Boxer puppy, Nash.

Yet the owner says all Ukrainians who have stayed there, including a former music professor from Kiev, desperately want to settle down in their own homes after giving up so much following Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of their homeland on Feb. 24, 2022.

However, Martin, who said she has become

“more worldly” due to this experience, fears current and future residents will likely need to spend longer at Hillside than before, when many could leave within weeks, while now even more people need her service.

Among the biggest causes for this is the Federal Government ending its two-year-old Canada-Ukraine authorization for emergency travel (CUAET) visa program on March 31.

Under it, people from the war-torn country have been given the right to stay and work in Canada for three years while also getting 14 nights in a hotel paid for and the opportunity to apply for grants of $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child to help them settle.

As such, most of the Ukrainians who have arrived in Canada since the war began are not officially refugees, a status that actually comes with more government support.

So far, around 170,000 have arrived under the CUAET scheme and a total of 800,000 emergency visas have been granted.

However, with the deadline to enter Canada under the program looming, there has been a rush of arrivals during the past few months of Ukrainians needing to set foot in this country in order to validate their visas.

After March 31, the documents will no longer be valid for those outside Canada, although late arrivers will still be able to enter as tourists or visitors and then apply for open work permits.

“There are a lot of individuals that fly into the airport, and they don’t have any place to stay,” Martin said.

“We’re finding that there’s more pressure with more people coming now.”

This mirrors what other Ukrainian shelters are finding, according to various news reports around Canada.

If you would like to volunteer in any capacity and for any amount of time at Hillside, email info@hillsideresidence.ca.

To donate money to help Grassroots Response to The Ukrainian Crisis, visit www. gofundme.com/f/HousingUkrainiansOntario.