CUAS Volunteers Receive Provincial Award

On Friday March 10, Valentina Kuryliw and Michael Wawryshyn received a Volunteer Service Award from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration of Ontario for their work with the Canadian Ukrainian Immigrant Aid Society.  The award ceremony, celebrating diversity and volunteerism, took place in Mississauga, at the Sagan Community Centre and Banquet Hall.

Mike Colle, Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration presented the award to Kuryliw and Wawryshyn.  They are both on the CUIAS executive, and have been actively involved with the community non-profit group since it was first established.

In its early days, says Kuryliw, the CUIAS, which was founded in Toronto in 1973 and incorporated in 1977, helped Ukrainian refugees gain asylum in Canada and was heavily involvement in family unification.   

In the late 1970s and 1980s, the CUIAS’s executive and volunteers spent a lot of time “lobbying in Ottawa” says Kuryliw.  At that time, when refugees arrived in Canada, the Canadian government would sometimes send them back to Soviet Ukraine. The CUIAS worked to prevent this from happening. 

When Ukrainian refugees were allowed to stay in Canada, the CUIAS sponsored them. Fundraising was therefore a crucial part of the CUIAS’s work as money had to be found to pay for food, clothing and shelter until the refugees got on their own feet financially.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the CUIAS’s core functions changed. It now offers advice to potential Ukrainian immigrants and serves as a settlement agency that helps newcomers from Ukraine get accustomed to life in Canada.