(CFJC Today/File photo).

By Aaron Schulze

Kamloops-Ukraine

Kamloops Immigrant Services preparing to welcome ‘two to three’ Ukrainian refugee families this year

Mar 14, 2022 | 12:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — Kamloops Immigrant Services (KIS) is preparing to welcome two to three Ukrainian refugee families this year, and potentially two-to-three more in 2023.

As the Ukrainian refugee count climbs to 2.8 million amidst Russia’s invasion of the country, according to the United Nations, the non-profit settlement agency in Kamloops continues to receive updates from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada on a near daily basis.

France Lamontajne, executive director of KIS, says they’ve started to internally educate themselves with the Ukrainian culture, their history and the different aspects of their crisis. She says they’re updating Ukrainian families already living in Kamloops who want to know how they can assist their family members or friends who want to come to Canada.

“We’ve compiled a list of community members who are almost calling daily to offer their help in various ways,” Lamontajne says. “We’ve categorized it with people wanting to provide short-term housing, other people call to say they have work and employment opportunities and lots of volunteers who speak Ukrainian who want to be a part of our database.”

KIS is looking at its previous recent experience of welcoming refugees when they welcomed seven families from Syria in 2015 and 2016, to help them prepare to welcome Ukrainian families. Lamontajne says they had more families move to Kamloops every three to four months over the course of a year, following the initial intake of Syrian refugees due to internal migration; moving from another city or province.

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“We might see, progressively, a few individuals coming in through private sponsorship because we have such a large Ukrainian community in Kamloops,” Lamontajne says. “Government-assisted refugees, we’re not sure at the moment. They’ll most likely arrive in the Lower Mainland and Kelowna. Kelowna could contact us if they were having difficulties locating families for the long-term.”

Until the first arrivals, Lamontajne says the Kamloops community can discuss if the city is ready to welcome Ukrainian refugee families and if there’s space within School District 73 to welcome school-aged children. She adds KIS is collecting electronics in good condition to give to Ukrainian families and preparing Ukrainian education material for the community ahead of the first intake.