Posted at 6:00 a.m.
It’s 10:30 a.m. In the large hall, around thirty children aged 5 to 12 are doing crafts. This Friday, for their very last day at day camp, they are making pyramids with dry spaghetti and marshmallows.
President of the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada, Katherine Smolynec watches them in action.
“I start and end my day by reading the news from Ukraine, which causes distress in my home,” says Ms.me Smolynec. But when I see these children playing, it gives me a little hope in humanity. »
Polina, 5, abandons her creation to give a hug to Katia Barbosa, 16, one of the five performers present that day. Polina comes from Sumy, a city in Ukraine located 50 km from the Russian border. She fell in love with Katia, a student at Jean-de-Brébeuf college whose mother is of Ukrainian origin.
PHOTO MORGANE SHOCK, THE PRESS
The interpreter Katia Barbosa has fun with a young camper.
“We have to be happy to try to cheer them up,” Katia said. Many children miss their fathers, who stayed in Ukraine. They are nostalgic. »
Children often express it during activities, notes Katia. She remembers that day when campers were decorating a birdhouse. A child talked about the birds that came to his yard in Ukraine. “He hoped the birds still had food,” says Katia.
For the past six weeks, the Monarque Tutoring camp has welcomed between 30 and 40 Ukrainian children every day, most of them from war-affected regions, such as Kharkiv, Odessa and Kyiv. They now live all over Greater Montreal, sometimes in apartments, sometimes with families who lend them a room or two.
The children are surrounded by instructors, but also by interpreters who allow them to be understood.
PHOTO MORGANE SHOCK, THE PRESS
Meagan Johnson embraces little Alona, 5 years old.
It’s already a new country, a new place. To offer them this small connection with the house, to allow them to speak Ukrainian with other children and with the interpreters, it makes them more comfortable.
Meagan Johnson, co-founder of Monarque Tutoring
The language barrier remains a challenge for the instructors, agrees Meagan, but they have found a way to go.
It was Fuel Transport who came up with the idea of offering such a day camp for the Ukrainian community. The Montreal company submitted the idea to Monarque Tutoring, who accepted the challenge. In July, the camp welcomed its first campers in premises in Mile End on loan from the Ukrainian National Federation of Canada (UNF).
Everything is free for children, thanks to Fuel Transport, FNU and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress.
The war in mind
“We’re going to eat Poutine!” »
A boy of about ten launches this joke on the way to the park. His friends burst out laughing. This afternoon, they will eat poutine to discover Quebec specialties. Hence the pun.
The political context in Ukraine is never far from the minds of children.
“In the older group, they are more expressive, more aggressive, sometimes,” says Meagan Johnson. They express their feelings. Sometimes, it’s in the drawings that we see it. Soldiers, flags…”
PHOTO MORGANE SHOCK, THE PRESS
Jora and Mark, two young campers
At the park, Katherine Smolynek from FNU asks 6-year-old Jora where her home is in Ukraine. “My house is at war,” he replies spontaneously. “I had a lot of friends at home,” he says.
Her boyfriend Mark is all smiles. “I love that we come to the park and play Lego every day! “says the 8-year-old boy.
Interpreter Sofia Safsaf watches them out of the corner of her eye. If children play, laugh and bond with each other, war is still part of their imagination.
One day, on returning from the park, two helicopters crossed the sky. Children came to see us. They were scared. They asked if it was the Russians.
Sofia Safsaf, performer
On the way to the picnic, in the streets of the Outremont district, the oldest spontaneously start the Ukrainian national anthem. The interpreters join them. “Glory to Ukraine! “, they chant.
PHOTO MORGANE SHOCK, THE PRESS
Yaremiia Bratychak
An interpreter, Yaremiia Bratychak, will return to live in Ukraine in a few days, to continue her studies in law and find her parents, whom she has not seen for almost five months. “I love my country so much,” says Yaremiia, certain that the Ukrainian soldiers are there to protect the population.
The children will soon start school in Quebec.
“See you next summer! says Nadia Marchuk, picking up her granddaughter Polina for the last time at day camp. Polina hopes to return next summer. She even plans to become an instructor one day.
Will the camp return in the summer of 2023?
“Is the war going to continue next year? I hope not, replies Katherine Smolynec. And if these children are still here, after one school year, they will be integrated into Quebec society. »