Please donate to organisations providing material assistance to the Ukrainian people fighting to save their homeland, to the many thousands of displaced persons and refugees, including the many families that have arrived on Vancouver Island. Since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Saint Michael the Archangel parish ihas supported the work of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA Canada) which partners with Caritas Ukraine to provide humanitarian assistance, access to medical aid, and spiritual support.
Spring 2024: a change of focus
Beginning shortly after Easter 2024, we decided to shift the focus of our charitable support to do more to aid the many Ukrainian families that have arrived and continue to arrive in our region. This not only enables us to provide specific aid to Ukrainians who have fled the war, but also to more directly apply our charitable giving where it is needed locally, rather than through intermediary organisations.
Donations to aid Ukrainians in need can be made through St Michael the Archangel parish via:
- Cheques made out to ‘St Michael parish’ with the memo ‘Aid for Ukrainians in need’.
These can be put in the collection basket at the church during our regular Saturday eleven o’clock morning service, or mailed to:
St Michael the Archangel parish
4017 Victoria Ave, Nanaimo, BC V9T 2A5 - Our CanadaHelps donation form.*
Select ‘2. Aid for Ukrainians in need’ from the dropdown list of funds. - Interac money transfer to donate@stmichaelnanaimo.ca
Please include memo ‘Aid for Ukrainians in need’, and be sure to separately email the answer to your security question if applicable.
If you would like to continue to also support the work of CNEWA and Caritas within Ukraine, you can do so directly via via CNEWA Canada’s Ukraine appeal webpage,** or through the CNEWA CanadaHelps page (select the Ukraine fund).
CanadaHelps also maintains a list of Canadian charitable organisations providing urgent aid to Ukraine and to Ukrainian refugees.
* If you make your donation via our CanadaHelps donation form, you will receive a charitable receipt direct from CanadaHelps.
** Please note that receipts for donations to CNEWA made by cheque or Interac money transfer via St Michael’s parish will be issued by CNEWA, not by the parish. This is necessary in order to ensure that the parish is able to maintain compliance with Canadian Revenue Agency regulations regarding the amount of funds that charitable organisations direct outside the country. In order the enable this, the parish will need to provide your name and address to CNEWA at the time we pass on the funds to them.