At Ottawa's Maidan Market, Ukrainian volunteers find hope through helping

At Maidan Market in Ottawa's Westgate Shopping Centre, Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion of their country can find everything they need.

Some of those items clothing, food, diapers and other necessities fit neatly into a shopping basket.

Others safety, comfort and a sense of belonging to a community despite being far from home might not fit in the basket, but are no less important.

I was crying every day, really. NowI can help somebody, too.- Inna Savska

The store, a volunteer-led initiative spearheaded by the Ottawa branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) in partnership with the mall's proprietor RioCan, celebrated its grand opening Monday.

There are racks of clothes for men, women and children, as well as toys and books in Ukrainian. Down a corridor, more rooms contain shelves stacked with non-perishable food, diapers and enough personal hygiene products to stock a Shoppers Drug Mart.

There are comfortable places to sitand resources on hand for Ukrainians seeking help with translation, OHIP coverage and mental health support.

It's all free, and it's all in demand.

WATCH| Inside the new Maidan Market in Ottawa's Westgate mall:

Maidan Market opens in Ottawa, offering free items for Ukrainians fleeing war

2 years ago

Duration 1:49

Olenka Reshitnyk-Bastian, founder of the Maidan Market, says the centre offers products to Ukrainian newcomers. Katia Kolomiiets arrived in Canada with her children three weeks ago and is now volunteering at the market.

Grand opening a success

On opening day, the store was buzzing with shoppers and volunteers, most of them speaking Ukrainian. A little girl with a long plait of brown hair moved excitedly from one shelf to the next, filling her bag with colouring books and crayons.

Nearby, two women perused the selection of baby clothes, searching for newborn sizes.

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Olya arrived in Ottawa from Kyiv two weeks ago, and in another week or two will give birth. Her husband, a member of the Ukrainian military, stayed behind. (CBC has agreed to withhold their surname for their protection.)

Olya said she and her husband decided it was time for her to flee their home near the hard-hit suburb of Irpin once the threat of a chemical attack became terrifyingly real.

When an Ottawa woman offered her a place to stay, Olya leapt at the chance to escape to Canada.

"To protect the baby, I needed to go," she said through a translator. "Obviously it is very different being here, however I'm focusing on important things like knowing that I can have my baby in safety."

Looking around the store, Olya said she's been astounded by the generosity on display.

"I'm extremely grateful, extremely impressed by what's available here. Even though a lot of Canadians would say this is the very least they can do, in reality for a lot of people this is so, so much."

Refugee turned volunteer

Inna Savska arrived in Ottawa with her mother and daughter in mid-March after fleeing Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. On Monday, she worked her first volunteer shift at Maidan Market.

"Because I want to help Ukrainian people, because I want to meet some Ukrainian people here to talk to them," Savska said.

Often, the talk turns to their homes in Ukraine specifically, whose is still standing, and whose isn't.

Using a home monitoring app on her mobile phone, Savska nervously checks on her own neat white house, pointing sadly to the plum tree that's just started to blossom.

"We try to keep positive. It's a little bit difficult, but what can we do?" she sighs.

Savska said volunteering at Maidan Market has helped keep her mind off the terrible danger back home, where her husband remains.

"I was crying every day, really. Now I can help somebody, too."

'A national thing'

Savska's cousin Anna Plugatyr, who arrived in Canada 22 years ago, said accepting charity doesn't come naturally for many Ukrainians.

"It's just a national thing. I think we see ourselves more as hosts rather than people who will be accepting help ourselves," she said.

"How do you rethink this whole idea that now you're the one without everything, and now you're the one that needs to look for stuff?" Plugatyr asked, glancing at her cousin.

"I can see this transition that Inna is ready to give back and feel again in this position of helping and hosting."

Olenka Reshitnyk-Bastian, a co-ordinator with the UCC's Ottawa branch and the driving force behind the Maidan Market, described another volunteer from Ukraine who seemed reluctant to take any of the donated goods for herself.

"I asked her how come, and she goes, 'I just witnessed such evil in Ukraine that I'm having a hard time understanding the good,'" said Reshitnyk-Bastian, who speaks Ukrainian and is herself a volunteer.

On Monday, the woman returned to the store to pick up a few things she needed.

Volunteers made it happen

Many of the items on offer at the store were left over from an earlier donation drive, a testament to this "fiercely giving community," Reshitnyk-Bastian said, noting it was that same spirit of generosity that made Monday's grand opening such a success.

"One hundred people in two days brought this together. I literally got the keys Thursday. It was empty Friday night," she said. "It's working, it's amazing."

Katia Kolomiietsis another one of those volunteers. Kolomiiets and her children, Nastia, 10, and Dani, 5, also found refuge in Ottawa after the war forced them from their home in Poltava, about 140 kilometres west of Kharkiv.

The kids are already enrolled in school and making new friends, she said.

"I'm very happy they are here safe," Kolomiiets said.

"My daughter said that she finally isn't afraid to sleep, because in Ukraine when you sleep [you're often woken by] sirens and you have to go to some shelter to hide from missiles."

Kolomiiets, whose husband has also stayed behind to defend their country against Russian invaders, considers herself lucky because she and her children were welcomed to Ottawa by relatives who have provided everything they need.

"Now I want to help people who don't have anything," she said.