World Refugee Day is on 20 June each year. Ukrainian refugee Kateryna Kyrychenko and Tibetan nun Phunstok reveal how the Northern Beaches has saved them.
KATERYNA KYRYCHENKO, UKRAINE
Kateryna Kyrychenko and her 11-year-old son, Illia, arrived on the Northern Beaches last year after fleeing war-torn Ukraine when Russia invaded.
She reveals how every day, each Ukrainian who has left the country begins and ends their day by calling relatives and friends. Their query is simple: are their loved ones still alive. Heartbreakingly, grandmother and grandmother are currently missing, and her other grandmother died in a bomb attack.
“My life as I know it can be divided into two parts – all that came before the 24 February 2022, and everything that has happened to me since that fateful day,” she says.
“I fled my burning home, amid the sounds of sirens and bombs.
“It seems to me that the world does not fully understand the scale of this catastrophe. Many friends have perished in Kharkov, Izyum, Borodenka, Bucha and Odessa. Entire families murdered, raped, tortured.
Illia in the shell of a burnt-out helicopter in the Ukraine.
“This nightmare must be stopped.”
Kateryna, who has been assisted by the Blue Peony Foundation, reveals how a classmate from school was killed waiting in the evacuation line at Krematorsk Railway Station.
“Their children needed to go to the toilet,” she says. “The grandmother, along with the mother and children, led the children away for a minute. Then a huge explosion tore through the station.
“My classmate was killed instantly. His mother, wife and children did not get a chance to say goodbye to him. To this day, I cannot convey with words the grief and pain felt by this family.
Dhondup Yultse and Sandra Simendic from Multicultural Services at Community Northern Beaches support vulnerable and at-risk people including refugees and families.
“Another friend disappeared when he went to get nappies for his child. After parts of Ukraine were liberated from Russian forces about a month later, his body was found.
“The rest of his family escaped and now find themselves in the safety of Canada, but how can they possibly go on living after that?”
Kateryna, who says she’s ‘indebted to Australia,’ was recently approached by Patrick Kyenkya, head of the United Nations Association of Australia, asking what it meant to be a refugee.
She answered: “There’s a famous sculpture, Emigrant, by French sculptor Bruno Catalano. It depicts a man holding a suitcase in his left arm, only that this arm is one of the few parts of his body that remains intact.
“Beyond his head, upper torso and his legs below the knees, he has no body to speak of, and it is only thanks to the suitcase in his hand that this sculpture is able to stand.
“So, what does it feel like to be a refugee? I would say it’s when you don’t even have a suitcase.”
While Illia has a scholarship at Barker College, Kateryna, an author and film and documentary-maker, is volunteering and assisting Ukrainian refugees.
“Many friends have perished. Entire families murdered, raped, tortured. This nightmare must be stopped.” Ukrainian refugee Kateryna Kyrychenko
PHUNSTOK, TIBET
Ten years ago, Phunstok, a Buddhist nun from Tibet, escaped over the Himalayas leaving persecution in her homeland to join other Tibetan exiles. She knew nothing about Australia, and had never even been on a plane when she was selected to come here as a refugee under an Australian Federal Government program.
“I was sad to be leaving where His Holiness, the Dalai Lama lived,’ she says. “We were shown books and told about life in Sydney.
“[But] I was very scared. How would we stay in the air? On arrival in Sydney, it all became a bit of blur.”
As a nun, Phunstok had no concept of earning money, receiving 50 rupees in pocket money a month – about $17 – for volunteering at a home for elderly Tibetans.
She recalls her first visit to Warringah Mall and was puzzled when handed her bank card.
“I couldn’t see where the money was on that little card,” she told My Settlement Journey, a project between NSW TAFE, Community Northern Beaches and Spill the Beans Writing Community.
Phunston now works in an aged care home and was assisted by Community Northern Beaches Multicultural Services (CNBMS). CNBMS works mainly with refugees of Tibetan background, and more recently it has also assisted those from Ukraine.
Multicultural Services manager Sandra Simendic says refugees and migrants face many challenges, including the housing crisis and cost of living, and they often have multiple jobs to afford rent and basic needs.
HOW THE COMMUNITY CAN HELP
Community Northern Beaches Multicultural Services
Volunteers needed for homework club, driving instructor and for English tuition. Donations of non-perishable food, homewares, furniture, vouchers and money help run the program. Email sandra@cnb.org.au or cnb.org.au/multicultural-service.
By Niki Waldegrave