Some Ukrainian refugees find new homes in Maine with help from a fellow expat

AUBURN, Maine — On a heat spring afternoon, Halyna and Petro Terzi stepped into their new condominium in Auburn, Maine, for the primary time. A small group of fellow Ukrainians was there to greet them.

Carrying blue and yellow balloons and a bouquet of flowers wrapped in plastic, the couple walked into their sunny bed room overlooking the again yard. They will be sharing this condominium with one other Ukrainian household who arrived a number of weeks in the past.

With a tired-looking smile on his face, Petro lowered himself right into a comfortable armchair subsequent to the mattress and set free a deep sigh. His daughter, Alina Terzi, who’s lived in Maine for a number of years, set down a few of her mother and father’ baggage.

“They’re so completely happy they’re like ‘Reward the Lord we’re — we have arrived,’ ” she mentioned, translating her father’s feedback in Russian.

The Terzis are from Odessa. They fled their dwelling in late February, a number of days into the Russian invasion. They went first to Moldova, then to Poland. There, volunteers with the Seventh Day Adventist church related them with a household in Warsaw, who hosted them whereas the couple waited for the U.S. embassy to course of their visa purposes.

The Terzis ultimately secured vacationer visas, which permit them to remain in the USA for six months. However they plan on attempting to remain longer — whether or not by making use of for asylum or by searching for household reunification with daughter Alina.

The official refugee resettlement program in the USA is overseen by the federal authorities and entails a prolonged software course of that features referral from the United Nations and interviews with American immigration officers. The entire course of can take as much as two years.

However hundreds of Ukrainians have already arrived in the USA, on vacationer visas, by means of the Biden Administration’s new expedited sponsorship program, or by presenting themselves to immigration officers on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Arriving with out the assistance of a refugee-resettlement company means many Ukrainians depend on relations or volunteers to safe primary wants — together with housing.

That is the case for the Terzis. They got here on vacationer visas and moved right into a nondescript two-unit rental property in Auburn that is change into an unlikely hub of a DIY resettlement operation.

Oleg Opalnyk is the particular person holding this operation collectively.

Opalnyk can also be from Ukraine, and has lived in Maine since 2001. He runs a development enterprise and invests in rental properties.

Opalnyk mentioned that after seeing the destruction the Russian military was inflicting on his dwelling nation, he needed to return.

“When the conflict began I needed to go to struggle,” he mentioned.

However he talked himself out of that concept.

“And I made this resolution that I’d in all probability assist extra folks to guard and provides them a head begin right here in [the] U.S. slightly than going and preventing,” Opalnyk mentioned.

In mid-April he gave that head begin to a household of 5 who already had a relative dwelling in Maine. He paid for his or her airfare and is housing them totally free.

Quickly after, he welcomed a second household — Olha and Yurii Kutniak, together with their 11-year-old-son. They’re now sharing their condominium with Halyna and Petro Terzi.

After fleeing Ukraine, the Kutniaks initially deliberate on going to Missouri, the place that they had a connection by means of their church neighborhood. However after they arrived in the USA after crossing the southern border, these plans modified.

Talking in Russian, Kutniak mentioned on the border they met a Ukrainian volunteer from a neighborhood Seventh Day Adventist church, who additionally occurred to be a good friend of Opalnyk’s. The volunteer instructed they think about Maine as an alternative, and advised them to name Opalnyk.

Kutniak mentioned the cellphone name went so nicely that they modified their plans on the spot. They arrived in Maine on April 21.

Their 11-year-old son is beginning faculty, and his mother and father are targeted on getting their work permits, with steerage from Opalnyk.

With assist from his household and his Seventh Day Adventist church, Opalnyk has additionally helped the households with every thing from furnishing the flats to enrolling the youngsters at school. He mentioned it is a full-time job — however a job he is completely happy to be doing.

“It is overwhelming, you recognize, every now and then, however on the identical time, you recognize, it is — I am very grateful that I’ve this potential to assist,” he mentioned.

Together with the Terzis, Opalnyk is now supporting 11 Ukrainian evacuees. And he is already making ready to welcome two extra households.

Opalnyk says he’ll allow them to keep so long as they want hire free, however is hoping that after they get their work permits they’re going to be capable of begin contributing to the price.

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