Veteran from N.S. reflects on starting humanitarian group in Ukraine

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the world for international volunteers to join the fight against Russia, Kate MacEachern of Ballantynes Cove, N.S., was ready to jump into action.

"The authenticity and desperation in his eyes was something a lot of us felt compelled to follow at that moment," said MacEachern, a retired corporal of the Canadian Armed Forces. 

Just weeks after Russian troops launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, she was on her way overseas to join the Ukrainian army as an international soldier. 

MacEachern served in the Canadian military for just under 10 years and was medically released in 2014 after she suffered a severe head and spinal cord injury during a training accident. It was a challenging time as she was raising a son on her own, but she has since recovered.

Despite leaving the military, MacEachern said she had the required skills and was determined to fight. That was until she made her first stop in eastern Europe — an evacuation centre in Poland where about 1,500 Ukrainians were taking shelter.

"It was horrific," said MacEachern, describing the scene of hundreds of injured and sick people huddled together on dirty cots.

"Everything changed when I walked in there," she said. "I understood that I'd have more impact, even as one person, as a humanitarian than I ever would with a rifle in my hand."

MacEachern decided to stay at the evacuation centre, working with a small group of fellow Canadians and international volunteers who would eventually form a small non-governmental organization called The Canada Way.
 
She said they greeted Ukrainian evacuees with food, coffee and warm clothes as they arrived at the centre by the busload each night. The group also managed aid shipped in by international organizations, ensuring resources were properly distributed. 

Not long after she arrived in Poland, MacEachern took a call from a Canadian medic working in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. He asked if she could get her hands on abortion pills that would be safe for a young patient. 

"I was shaken," she said. "This was going to be taking risks that were far outside anything we'd ever done before." 

From there, MacEachern said people from around the world were offering to send the medication, which she and her group were ultimately able to get to the medic in Kyiv. 

This was the start of people abroad connecting with MacEachern to make donations. She and her group would then travel by van, distributing the goods to communities across Ukraine that larger organizations struggled to reach.

Emma Henning from Exmouth, a port town in Devon, U.K., joined The Canada Way two years ago.

She collects donations of medical supplies from local hospitals and facilitates getting them into Ukraine. 

Henning plans to travel to the country for the first time later this month with a van full of medicine, bandages and surgical instruments for MacEachern and the team on the ground to distribute. 

"I'm a little bit nervous, but I've done my work from this side, and I feel I need to go to that side and I need to see it with my own eyes," said Henning.

"I trust these guys with my life — 1,000 per cent. They're amazing." 

MacEachern estimates that with the help of people like Henning, the group has moved about $1 million worth of aid into the country over 2½ years. 

MacEachern has been taking a break back home in Nova Scotia for a couple months, but will return to Ukraine after Remembrance Day. 

Her older sister, Kristen MacEachern, said she was reluctant about Kate's decision to go to Ukraine in the first place, but quickly realized she had to support her decision. 

"She's tough. She's tougher than most," said Kristen. "It wouldn't matter what anyone else on the face of the Earth told her, if Katie makes her mind up about something, she's doing it." 

The Canadian government has advised against travel to the region since Russia's invasion in February 2022. 

"I am hesitant," said Kate. "The tempo is changing, but I am very good at taking care of myself." 

She understands the risks; however, she said living in a war zone has opened her eyes in many ways.

"Every Ukrainian … the level of resiliency is breathtaking out there, and it's such a reminder of how much we take things for granted here," said MacEachern. 

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