After more than a month volunteering in Poland and Ukraine to help war refugees, Johnathan Verroen says he plans to return home to the Sarnia area for a few days later this month.
In June, he plans to return to Europe for another three months as a volunteer.
“This experience has been life-changing,” he said in an email.
Verroen said he, like others, “watched in horror” when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“As time went on, I felt this deep desire to come over here,” he said. “I had no idea what I would do but I was willing to do anything I could to help people.
Verroen said he booked a flight to Krakow, Poland, and then spent two weeks there making connections and helping in a kitchen feeding refugees.
He worked with a friend setting up a Facebook group for refugees seeking to come to Canada and then with Anna McRobbie, a nurse from Edmonton, set up travel desks in Poland and Ukraine to help refugees fill out visa applications.
“The Ukrainian people are strong, but most of them we are working with are women and children,” he said. “Their husbands either can’t leave Ukraine or they are fighting on the front lines. Most are scared and lots have lost everything.”
Verroen said he created a Google document for refugees who want to come to Canada and need a host or sponsor. He then sends the information he collects to Sarnia community groups through MP Marilyn Gladu’s office, as well as local churches, or to other groups across Canada.
“Most families want to get settled in Canada and start working right away,” he said.
“This is why my team and I are trying to work quickly as possible to get them to Canada, but the Canadian visa program is not easy and it wasn’t designed for this type of migration.”
Verroen said he and the other volunteers work to ensure refugees have accommodations, transportation and anything else they need.
“So I spend many hours a day on my phone networking and getting support for the refugees we are working with here,” he said.
Verroen grew up in Wyoming and went to Lambton Central Collegiate in Petrolia.
He worked as a manager for a jewelry store chain in Sarnia and was transferred out of town, returning home in 2015 to be with his father who was dying.
Gladu was his youth group leader more than 30 years ago and they remained friends.
“I’m very proud of him,” Gladu said. “John is over there, feet on the ground, and we’re over here with a community that is stepping forward and welcoming them with open arms.”
Gladu estimated about 100 families fleeing the war in Ukraine are expected to settle in the Sarnia area. About 20 or more are in the Sarnia area now, with several more sponsored by Bethel Pentecostal Church and St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church expected to arrive in the coming days, she said.
Local groups are sharing information about efforts to host and assist refugee families through a “Save Ukraine – Sarnia and Lambton County” Facebook page.
Recently, pupils in a Grade 5/6 class at St. Matthew Catholic school in Sarnia raised $1,166 at a school carnival to donate to St. George Catholic Ukrainian Church to help support a refugee family.
“I want to thank our students and staff for their tremendous effort to help a family caught in a crisis of war halfway around the world,” school principal Derek Morrison said in a news release.
Pupils in a Grade 5/6 class at St. Matthew Catholic school in Sarnia raised $1,166 to help St. George Catholic Ukrainian Church sponsor a Ukraine refugee family.
“Frankly, Canada didn’t have a big presence,” Gladu said about what Verroen encountered when he began working in Poland and Ukraine with groups helping refugees resettle in host countries.
“France had a table and Germany had a table and the UK had a table and Spain had a table, but Canada had nothing,” she said. “It has been a very long and bureaucratic progress to get people their paperwork to actually bring them over. In some cases, it’s taking longer than six weeks.
“I mean they’re fleeing a war zone – it’s urgent.”