How a Bishop's student got her Ukrainian family to safety in Poland

Bishop's University student Arina Zinchenko said she cried tears of joy after finding out her cousins and aunt had finally made it to Poland and were safe.

The 22-year-old student in Sherbrooke, Que., sprung into action as soon as she found out they were fleeing Ukraine through the western city Lviv. She contacted everyone she could think of in surrounding countries to see if they could shelter them.

"I started posting about it. I had so many people share all the information I was sharing,"  Zinchenko said in an interview with CBC Radio's Breakaway Friday. 

"I was saying I have three women, two girls and their mom, they're looking for a place to stay."

After connecting with an old friend from CEGEP who has family in Poland, Zinchenko found her three relatives a safe place to stay, where they have been since last week. 

"His family, they are the most amazing people. They said yes no problem, we will pick them up from the border, bring them to our house, we will feed them, we will cater to them, everything," Zinchenko said. 

When she finally received photos from the family after they had arrived in Poland, she couldn't help crying. 

"I've never seen them so pale or seen them so tired, or so devastated," she said, after they had first arrived in Poland.

But more pictures came a few hours later, and by then the colour had returned to their faces. 

"They were so happy," she said.

Zinchenko is doubly relieved because her grandmother, after arriving at Lviv's train station on Friday, also made it to Poland, where she was met by family. She was hesitant to leave her home country at first, Zinchenko said. 

Zinchenko's siblings and parents live in Montreal but much of her family remains in Ukraine. Ever since the Russian invasion began in late February, she had been looking for ways to help her family who remained in the country, but felt hopeless in the beginning. 

"It was so stressful and you want to help them as much as you can, but you understand that you don't have a lot of opportunities to help," she said, recalling the beginning of the invasion. 

"When you're on the phone with them you can hear the shooting and you can hear the bombs," she said. "In the beginning it was horrific."