The provincial government’s Ukrainian resettlement program has not been as successful as one might think, according to one woman who has been helping newcomers get settled away.
Pat Power started helping the refugees get settled in Newfoundland after connecting with one stressed-out woman who had been posting in local Facebook groups ahead of her arrival.
Power helped that woman, and before long she was helping even more Ukrainians.
While she says she has seen the success and generosity of the community to get people settled, she has also seen how difficult it has been for the refugees.
(Photo via Andrew Furey Twitter page.)
One man who she has been dealing with works all night at one job, and leaves there to go work at another just to pay the rent to support his wife and two children. She says that family has to avail of food banks and is in “hard shape.”
Power says another woman has been commuting two hours by bus to get to a four-hour cleaning job, and then taking another two-hour bus ride to get back to her apartment.
She’s hearing other stories, including people who were health care professionals in Ukraine, but are not qualified here so they are now working minimum wage jobs.
Power says four of the families she’s helped have moved out of the province because they knew they couldn’t survive on minimum wage jobs to get by.
