European vacation to refugee assistance to friendship

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This article was published 28/04/2022 (926 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two friendly Manitobans cut short their vacation in France to bring clothing, bedding and medical supplies to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, before helping a mother and her two children reach relatives in Vienna.

Now, Susanne Martin is looking for a donated violin to send to the woman who had to leave her instrument behind in the war-ravaged country.

Martin and partner Peter Palaschuk were renting a place in France on March 20, watching televised images of the Russian army invading Ukraine and refugees fleeing to neighbouring Poland, when they decided to take action.

“We looked at each other and said we had to do something,” Martin said. “We had no discussion — we just did it.”

The couple began asking local connections if there was clothing and bedding for donation, went to thrift stores to purchase items, and asked a nurse they knew to check with local pharmacies for medical supplies.

The Manitobans piled everything into the back of a car and started driving east on the first leg of a 4,000-kilometre round-trip odyssey. They got to Prague the first night and by the second, they were in Poland.

“They told us to go to Przmeysl,” Martin said, adding the Polish city was on the border with Ukraine and a major destination for refugees. Once they arrived, they were able to give the medical supplies to a local nun who was distributing them; they took clothes and bedding supplies to the processing centre for refugees.

“It was all women, children and the elderly there,” she said. “We gave out all the supplies and food and toiletries. People had nothing. They left with nothing, absolutely nothing.”

With a now-empty car for the journey back to France, Martin fashioned a handmade poster and walked through a crowd of newly arrived refugees at the local train station to see if any wanted a lift.

Natalie Omelchenko, with her eight-year-old son, Dimo, and five-year-old daughter, Katya, approached and asked if they could get a ride to Omelchenko cousin’s home in Vienna. In her hand was a single grocery bag with the only possessions the young family could carry.

“You could see the stress on her face,” Martin said. “She had to leave her 84-year-old mother behind. The woman refused to go.”

The group drove six hours to Budapest, where the couple put the family up with their own hotel room. Because the mother and children were so exhausted, they all stayed a second night so they could catch up on sleep in a safe place.

On the road again, the woman and two children were dropped off at her cousin’s residence in Vienna.

Even though the couple returned to France and have since come back to Winnipeg, Martin said they haven’t forgotten the family.

She has kept in touch with Omelchenko and has already sent a couple of care packages in the mail. “She’s my new sister,” Martin said. “She has now become part of our family.”

There is something else Martin would like to send.

“When we were driving there was classical music on the radio and she was humming,” the Canadian said. “She said, ‘I play classical violin and Vivaldi is my favourite’… She had to leave her violin behind.”

(Martin said if a Winnipegger has a violin they no longer have use for, she will ship it overseas.)

Meantime, Omelchenko is seeking to pay back the couple’s kindness.

“My grandmother came from Ukraine, outside Lviv,” Martin said. “I have 10 letters my mom left when she died, all written in Ukrainian. (Omelchenko) is now translating the letters and she said she will try to find relatives of mine over there.

“But, really, the help we gave is a drop in the bucket,” she said. “We could only help three people.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca