Donations piling up as Ukrainian church in Montreal struggles to pay for shipping

Volunteers mill around the hundreds of boxesliningthe aisles and piled up on pews at St. Michael'sUkrainian Catholic Church, looking for the next boxthat needs sorting.

One man opens abox to find bags of dried pasta. A woman opens another and examines the packages of toothbrushes and childproof plastic containers inside. At the back of the church, a mountain of diaper boxes looms over the rest.

"We're really working hard to get it all sorted through," said volunteer Rebecca Shunsky, as she combed through boxes of medical supplies. "I try to keep up with the work, and I do my best."

Montrealers, horrified by the images of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, have been donating whatever they canin the hopeof getting it overseas, but the task of sorting it and paying to ship it hasn't been easy for volunteers at the city's Ukrainian churches.

"We can't keep everything in the church. We are getting a crazy amount of stuff," said Hanna Tatsenko, who is helping with the donationdrive at the church on d'Iberville Street, in Montreal's Ville-Marie borough.

WATCH| Biggest challenge 'is actually how to deliver it to Ukraine,'says volunteer:

Donations for Ukraine are pouring in, but 40 tonnes still stuck in Montreal

3 years ago

Duration 2:43

Hundreds of boxes of donations are piling up in St. Michaels Ukrainian Catholic Church on dIberville Street and at a warehouse in Saint-Laurent. It may be too costly to ship the 40 tonnes of donations yet to be sent overseas.

Tatsenko, who has experiencein logistics, said the church has already moved an additional 40 tonnes of donations to a warehouse across town in Saint-Laurent.

There is so much stuff that the church is now unsure whether itcan afford to donate it all, despite volunteers working tirelessly to package, sort and label everything for shipment.

"The cost to ship is too expensive. We are a non-profit organization;we don't[have] any money to pay for it,"said Tatsenko.

Since beginning its donation drive, St. Michael's has been able to flytwo shipments to Ukraine,but Tatsenko estimates that getting the rest there could cost as much as$200,000.

To try to reduce costs, Tatsenko said the church has partnered with a Nova Scotia transport companywhose owners are Ukrainian.

"They pick up the cost from here, bring it to Halifax and ship from Halifax," she said.

The donations are sent first to Polandbefore being taken over theborder to Lviv in western Ukraineand distributed throughout the country, wherever they'reneeded.

Donations for refugees

St. Michael's is co-ordinating withSt. Mary the Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Rosemontto streamline donation efforts: whatever is destined for overseas goes to St. Michael's, while goods needed for refugees when they arrive in Montreal are handled bythe Orthodox church.

At the church in Rosemont, rows of neatly folded clothing, some items with the tags still on them, sit on long folding tablesnext to boxes of plush toys and baby shampoo.

Parishioner Ines Sassette has been helping to sort through all the donations coming their way. She knows the items will be helpful to refugees fleeing war.

"They come with nothing," Sassette said."All the Ukrainians are family to us, so we are trying to help our nation, so they have a future."

Sassette, who is Portuguese and married to a Ukrainian, said it's been encouraging to see how Montrealersof all backgrounds have pitched in.

"I give my time with love and joy, and I see all the community come here and bring a lot of things, and want to help the Ukrainians," she said.

Shunsky, who is of Russian descent, said volunteering at St. Michael's is the "least Ican do," because "there's a country in crisis."

"Yes, I'm Russian, but I also really love Ukrainian culture ever since I was a kid," she said. "I'm not doing this because I'm Russian: I'm doing this because I love Ukraine."

Sassette said St. Mary the Protectress parish has enough donations for the refugees who are expected to arrive in a couple of weeksbut said there are contingency plans to collect more after that, if needed.

St. Michael's, meanwhile, iscontinuing to accept goods destined for Ukraine, butthe greater need now is for financialdonations to help cover the shipping costs.

As difficult as managing the donations can be, Tatsenkosays it pales in comparison with what people are living through in Ukraine.

"What's overwhelming is that we call close friends and family, and we don't know if they're going to answer the phone. Every day. That's overwhelming,"

Tatsenko came to Quebec 12 years ago with her husband, and the couple has two children here, but all the rest of her family is still in Ukraine.

"It's still your home country," she said, tears in her eyes."Ithurts to see how it is turning into ash."