![]() “The teachers and the students for making me feel at home,” added another.Grants are available under different rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. “To be able to safely play outside,” said one girl in Ukrainian, as teacher Darya Parzie translated. She asked the students what they enjoyed about their time at St. In the session earlier this month, Daria Saverino walked the students through the high school learning experience, speaking a mix of Ukrainian and English: There will be four courses a semester they’ll have a locker and they’ll be earning credits toward graduation. Hordienko learned that her graduating refugee students were nervous about the move to high school, she asked a school board child and youth worker to speak to them. John Ambulance, a humanitarian organization that relies mostly on volunteers, brought therapy dogs to visit this month to alleviate some of the emotional distress among the children. ![]() In the basement of the church next door, a group of women prepare sandwiches for lunch three times a week. A section of the library has been transformed into a space where they can access donated food and clothing. Hordienko says the school community has stepped in to help the new students and their families, especially as some have learned of loved ones who were killed or injured. Pro-Ukrainian signs adorn the walls around a supply of donated food at the school. A sign at the front door reads, “Putin: Hands off Ukraine.” “Pray for Ukraine” says another outside the main office. Students receive a half hour of daily Ukrainian instruction. Both the Canadian and Ukrainian anthems play each morning over the intercom, followed by announcements in both languages. Demetrius is one of three Toronto Catholic District School Board schools with a high concentration of Ukrainian students, and the school is steeped in Ukrainian culture. More than 200 students at the school are refugees, and as the student population doubled over the last 15 months, it added eight portables to accommodate the influx. Demetrius’s principal Lily Hordienko says children from Ukraine started enrolling last March, and by April, as many as five arrived daily at the front door. ![]() “We have to finish,” he says of his Ukrainian schoolwork. He arrived with his mother and brother a year ago, travelling from Ukraine by bus to Warsaw, Poland, and then flying to Canada. Maksym Babiak, 13, doesn’t want to fall behind. Many have kept up their Ukrainian studies by working on assignments online late into the night, because they hope to return at the same level as those who stayed. Demetrius a year ago in the weeks after the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion last February, while others have been here for as little as six months.īut no matter how long they’ve been gone from Ukraine, they remain tethered to their home. ![]() In the days leading up to their graduation, Adriana and four of her classmates describe leaving their homes in Ukraine, often without their fathers. All came to Canada after the Russian invasion began. Demetrius, which added eight portables to accommodate a student population that has doubled in 15 months since the first new Ukrainian arrivals began last March.Īdriana, middle, poses with friends Maksym Babiak, Nadia Veselivska, Viktoriia Tymoshchuk and Maksym Mykhailiuk. ![]()
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