Ukrainian arrival giving back to her community

By Lethbridge Herald on April 10, 2023.

Alla Panchenko oversees prep work being done by a team of volunteers at the Southern Alberta Ethnic Association for an upcoming Ukrainian Easter dinner she has organized for Saturday. Herald photo by Al Beeber

Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Alla Panchenko escaped her war-torn homeland of Ukraine last August with her husband and two children and now she is helping her fellow compatriots adjust to their new lives in Lethbridge.

On Saturday, Panchenko, a chef and caterer in her homeland will, with the support of Project Sunflower Aid Society, be staging a Ukrainian Easter dinner at the Multicultural Centre, 421 6 Ave. South. 

The event, from 5:30 until 9:30 p.m. is free for newcomers and their families. Other community members are welcome to attend by registering online at eventbrite.ca. Admission will be “pay what you can” at the door.

Panchenko and a crew of volunteers spent last weekend in the centre’s commercial kitchen prepping for the dinner.

Anastasia Sereda of Project Sunflower said there have been so many Ukrainians coming to Lethbridge in the last year that the event is being used as an opportunity for them to meet one another “because they have a very similar shared experience.

“We’re trying to create a community building event,” said Sereda.

“There have been a lot of folks that have come in the last couple of months,” Sereda added.

“It’s an opportunity for the newer newcomers to meet the ones that have already sort of laid some of the groundwork for their own lives here.”

The dinner will let the newcomers network and share experiences navigating life in their new home.

Dennis Chinner of the Rotary Club of Lethbridge Downtown said Saturday Lethbridge Family Services has processed 149 families with about 52 in the queue to come here.

“They have received zero additional financing from the feds to do this so what’s happening is they’ve got a little backlog. Right now what we’ve found, when Rotary got involved for example, we didn’t accept anybody that hadn’t been through Lethbridge Family Services. Well now what’s happened is we’ve been able to get people jobs, get people  housing and stuff before they get here. The community has been completely unbelievable as far as what they’ve been able to do,” said Chinner.

“There’ve been so many Ukrainians that have come in the last year Alla came up with this idea. She said ‘I used to cook in Ukraine so we should do something’” said Sereda.

“I kind of look at this as a great way of helping integrate these folks into the community because they get involved in volunteer activities. They uplift their community in a really productive way rather than feeling isolated away from other people. The fact they feel they want to come and participate and come on a weekend and cook food, prepare perogies and cabbage rolls and borscht and then share it with everyone, is a really great way of building community,” said Sereda.

Chinner said the arrivals “really lack some of the social interaction because a lot of them are working, a lot of them are taking English classes three or four nights a week and they also don’t have a lot of money to be able to go out and attend social events in the city. 

“I think this is a fabulous idea.”

Chinner said 972,860 applications by Ukrainians have been made to come to Canada so far with 626,814 approved. A total of 139,056 people have arrived in the country. Of those, 28,000 have come to Alberta – 1,400 in the last week alone.

“Even having 200 come to Lethbridge is a lot in a year,” said Sereda. “I think that’s quite substantial.”

The Ukrainians are considered to be evacuees, not refugees, noted Chinner, so they don’t get ongoing government financial support.

Panchenko said through an interpreter “I wanted to help the Ukrainian people. Part of the proceeds from this event will go to help the newcomers from Ukraine and part of the proceeds will go to the Ukrainian army.”

Panchenko and her family are adapting to their adopted home, she said.

“I like it very much here. It has a wonderful atmosphere. People are so helpful, the Canadians are trying to help. And I’m trying to help the newcomers from Ukraine as much as I can. Whatever I can do, I’m trying to help,” Panchenko said.