A ‘random act of kindness’ that is making a big difference

When Dale Smith died suddenly in May of this year, his family asked those who knew him to do a random act of kindness in his memory. It has turned out to be a lifechanging request for Gail and Terry Kelso, Gail’s sister Carol Wang, and a family of five from Poltava, Ukraine, who are now one month into living in a new home in Ottawa.

Thinking back to the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Gail recalled feeling compelled to help, but lost for how exactly to do that.

“It was awful, you felt like you wanted to do something but felt like you didn’t quite know what to do that would make a difference.”

In the end it was that call for an act of kindness, combined with some inspiration from her sister, who has a property management company, that led to the idea of hosting a family.

“She had an apartment opening up July 1,” Gail said, sharing that before long she and her husband were out collecting donations, and trying to figure out how to make a connection with a family in need.

“(The government) was giving money, but they weren’t making any of these connections,” she said, adding that there was, “nothing very organized.”

The couple turned to Facebook groups and, after a significant amount of research, ended up deciding to trust a group called “Canada Hosts Ukraine,” where displaced families would post their needs and try to reach out to possible hosts in Canada.

It took several tries to find someone who was looking for what they had to offer, but while that process was going on, Terry said that they had no trouble gathering a whole home’s worth of furnishings and other necessary donations.

“People were happy to donate when they knew what it was for,” he said.

It was Carol who ended up speaking to Masha Balanovska about her family for the first time.

“When we wrote the post for help, we wanted to go to Calgary,” Balanovska said, explaining that she had heard through the online group that there is a large Ukranian community in Alberta, and a lot of jobs. In hearing from Carol what had been put together in Ottawa, however, they decided to change their plans.

“It was like a fairy tale,” Balanovska said, explaining that she had been living with her husband and three sons in an underfurnished and unpleasant apartment in Prague for five months. The three boys, aged 14, 11, and 8, were sharing one bed and one blanket and trying to learn what they could online because there was no room in the local Czech schools. She said that they never went outside, for lack of safe places to go, had no network of support, and limited income.

Although the Ukranian mother, like the Kelsos, said that she had some apprehensions about the idea of turning to strangers on the internet for help at first, theirs is a story of things ending up more than just alright.

“We decided to take the risk,” she said.

“Masha said the hardest part was asking for help, because she always wants to help others,” Gail said, describing the young family as “amazing people,” who are already working on trying to support other families in similar situations.

It was July 15 when the family arrived in Ottawa and started settling into their new home.

“It was hard to believe that we hadn’t met before,” Gail said, describing an immediate connection with the new arrivals that has only grown in the time since. “We told them to think of us as their Canadian grandparents, and (Masha) said, ‘we already talked about that.”

Thanks to the work done in advance, the family arrived to a fully furnished home, new bicycles and sports equipment for the children, fully stocked cupboards, and a welcoming community support network.

“Everything was in place to help them feel at home,” Gail said, adding, “It’s been overwhelming to feel that we’ve made a difference.”