Saskatoon volunteers relieved girls at Canadian safe house in Ukraine have escaped

Relief over Ukraine escape Saskatoon volunteers are relieved after 17 Ukrainian girls arrived safely in Poland. Carla Shynkaruk reports.

Saskatoon volunteers are relieved after a group of 17 Ukrainian girls living in a Canadian safe house in Ukraine arrived safely in Poland.

The local organization, called Nashi, is happy with the recent progress to get the girls out of Ukraine, but uncertainty remains.

The safe house is called Maple Leaf House, built in 2014 by Nashi in the village of Stoyaniv, near the Ukraine-Poland border.

It provides a stable home that most of the girls, ranging in age from seven to 17, had never known. They were rescued from lives of abuse, neglect and sex trafficking.

The director in Ukraine prepared to move the girls to safety, according to Saskatoon founder and president Savelia Curniski.

“Maria was very careful about any information going out over the telephone line,” Curniski told CTV News.

All Curniski and her crew in Saskatoon knew was that the busload of girls was bound for Poland.

“Traffickers would love to get a hold of that bus. Even in our communication between us and Ukraine, we did not mention timelines, when they’d be leaving, the place they’d be going,” Vice President Andrew Allsopp said.

“I’ve been fielding calls constantly from our supporters and donors and volunteers asking, 'Where are they? Where are they?' There were people that weren’t sleeping at night here in Canada,” Curniski said.

While the actual bombing wasn’t occurring in their village yet, it was just 60 kilometres away in Lutsk. They made the call to evacuate the girls for that reason, but there was another threat looming which made leaving more urgent.

“We know that in conflict zones, raping women and children is very prevalent and it is going on there today,” Curniski said.

“Traffickers are there and there are so many opportunities to get new victims,” according to Allsopp.

On Sunday there was good news that the girls made it safely to Poland.

Now preparations are being made to possibly bring the girls to Saskatoon in the event the conflict continues. More fundraising is needed.

Nashi raises much of its funds through an annual perogy dinner called Perogy Paradise which sold out in just a week this year. There is also the red tape of getting the girls to Canada since most of the girls don’t have passports because they came from orphanages.

Allsopp said he met with a Member of Parliament in charge of immigration today in hopes of getting the process going and said it was promising.

The hope, according to Curniski, is to have the girls return to the only home many have known at Maple Leaf House, but the possibility hangs in the balance.

There are families ready to mobilize in Saskatoon to accept the girls in the event they arrive. They are accepting donations to help facilitate flights and if they are not brought to Canada, that money will go to their education fund as a central goal of the program is to ensure the girls are educated, including post-secondary so they are self-sufficient once they leave Maple Leaf House.