A job fair in support of Ukrainian refugees in the province yesterday is being heralded as a success.

The fair was put off by Work Global Canada, a recruitment agency located in St. John’s.

According to President and CEO Paul Shelley, as of 3:30 p.m., yesterday about 20 refugees dropped by looking for employment help, three of whom are doctors.

Shelley says some can speak English very well, and others cannot, so improving language skills is something they can offer.

As well, he says they also help with things such as MCPs and drivers licenses. However, the bottom line, says Shelley, is they need to get to work and they are trying to match refugees’ skills with jobs to get them started.

One such refugee who came to the job fair is Atris. He recently graduated as a general physician from the Kyiv National Medical University.

As it is going to take a lot of time and money to get medical certification here, right now he is focused on applying for all types of jobs—such as cashier positions. However, Atris says one challenge is the rate of pay for a lot of positions.

He says starting out at a low-wage job makes it challenging to start a life, noting that he still has loans in Ukraine that he has to keep paying on—even while the war is ongoing.