A total of 28 Ukrainians touched down in Toronto recently thanks to the generosity of Samaritan’s Purse and the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel.
By Micah Quinn
A total of 28 Ukrainians touched down in Toronto recently thanks to the generosity of Samaritan’s Purse and the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel. The Christian organization helped fly the Ukrainians out of Poland on its DC-8 aircraft. They will be staying with friends and relatives in the greater Toronto area, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vegreville and Regina.
“We were able to welcome them with rounds of applause so that they really felt welcome in this country. In many cases they had family and friends right there to pick them up. In other cases we drove them to hotels so that they could stay there and get their connecting flights from Pearson. It came down in a really incredibly short amount of time when I think about it. So, I give some much credit to Samaritan’s Purse staff here and at international headquarters to be able to pull together all of the details. Of course, I give thanks to all of the Canadian partners who finance all this. Because in the end they’re the ones who brought these Ukrainians over to Canada. They just happened to do it through Samaritan’s Purse.”
Samaritan’s Purse has airlifted more than 300 tons of relief supplies to Ukraine and surrounding countries since Russia invaded in late February. This includes an emergency field hospital on 13 airlift missions to aid people that have been impacted by the war.
150 Samaritan’s Purse disaster response specialists are in the region and have assisted over 330,000 people. The plan is to tentatively have another flight full of Ukrainians coming to Canada on May 20 as well.
