Calgary couple puts vacation plans on hold to aid Ukrainians fleeing to safety

Heather Wicksted and Matthew Daw were about to embark on a bike tour through Turkey this week, but the Calgary couple decided to put their vacation plans on hold in an effort to help Ukrainian refugees.

The pair recently arrived at a train station in Bucharest, Romania where Wicksted said the decision to help out became real.

“Everywhere there were signs for refugee help on top of the Ukrainian flag,” she said.

“The wind blew in the zero-degree temps and the sounds of crying children and people moving could be heard all around us. It was heartbreaking.”

About 120 Ukrainians were staying at the same hotel as Wicksted and Daw where they heard of a Canadian organization called Pilgrim Movement that’s helping Ukrainians immigrate safely to Canada.

In an interview Saturday with CTV News, an emotional Daw described the moment when he saw a woman named Svitlana Tymchii with two young girls crossing the Ukraine-Romania border.

“We learned that the mom now of course has a SIM card and now there's food and now there's a place to rest but now she's in Romania, she has not heard from her husband who's fighting in Kyiv now for two straight days,” Daw said.

“It’s a very emotionally challenging place. I think for me, all you can do is smile, tell these people that there is support here and you will find the things you need here. There is no conversations about where they came from at all, it’s just, here's the now and let's make sure you're comfortable.”

Pilgrim Movement is currently the only Canadian non-profit organization working at the Ukraine-Romania border where a line-up of people up to 10 kilometres long is continuing to pass through to safety.

President and founder Sebastian Tirtirau is originally from Romania. He grew up just 70 kilometres from the Ukraine border and says many of his colleagues and friends are Ukrainian.

“These people are like our people. I mean, we have half a million Romanians in Ukraine, and they have about 250,000 living in villages around the border,” he said.

“When you see these people smiling and hugging us, you can see the incredible change of the range of emotions and this for me gives you the definition of what hope means for these people. It is to give them a little bit of trust and love, and they will take care of the rest.”

Tirtirau is now calling on the Canadian government for further support to help refugees start a new life in Canada. He estimates that could fill upwards of five commercial jets full of refugees immediately if the government were to supply them.

“Canada has the largest diaspora of Ukrainians outside of Ukraine so a lot of people have families and friends,” he said.

“They want to get there, so just send planes, I'll fill them up, I promise.”

For now, Calgary couple Wicksted and Daw, plan to stay in Romania for at least the next two to three weeks to help as many Ukrainians as possible to apply for refugee status in Canada.

Wicksted equated the crisis to that of the 2013 Calgary floods, but at a much larger scale.

“I remember watching that on the news in Calgary, how you felt so helpless because my home wasn’t impacted so when I volunteered it just felt right,” she said.

“As these women and children are walking by me today, I don't have Ukrainian or Romanian roots, but just the sheer act of standing there and trying to smile and look them in the eye, as Canadians we see you.”

For more information on how to volunteer or donate to the Ukraine crisis, go to pilgrim-movement.org.