Bogdan Martinyuk, Saskatchewan, Canada

Before moving to Canada, I lived in a communal residence with my wife, Larysa, and two daughters, Lyuda and Nastya, in Vinnytsya, Ukraine. The four of us lived in one of the 12 square meter rooms. I worked as a welder at trolleybus depot, then at the plant «Analog», but as usual we didn't have enough money for make ends meet and decided to go to Kiev to find work.

There I met my wife's friend and she told me that her husband, Sasha, is now in Canada. I asked her how her husband managed to get there and she gave me the address of one organization in Kiev, ILC. I submitted my documents to ILC and received an invitation for a practical welding test at the Paton Institute. I successfully passed that test and everything after that was taken care of by ILC.

While my documents were being prepared by ILC, I worked during the day and studied English in the evening. I didn't have enough money to go to Canada, but my friends helped me and ILC provided me with a loan. The whole process took a year.

I decided to go to Canada first with my family staying in Ukraine. They later joined me. My employer, D&R Manufacturing, met me at the airport when I first arrived to Canada. I was put through their orientation program during the first couple of days. I continue to work for this employer up to this day.

Before my family arrived, I shared accommodations with others (similar to the communal residence in Ukraine). I have met a lot of helpful and friendly people here. From the moment I arrived, I have been welcomed and invited to many people's houses. My work hasn't been hard for me since I was already familiar with the welding process before I arrived. I like my job very much.

I am very thankful and appreciative to Vita Shubert because she helped my family with all of their documents while I was here working for the first year. After this year, I was able to be reunited with my family here in Saskatchewan.

We now live together in Fiske, a small Saskatchewan town with a population of about 100 people. We rent a 3-bedroom house and I have my own vehicle. My family was immediately very impressed with how friendly people are here in Saskatchewan. They helped us to register our children at school, have brought us many housewarming items for our house, and visit us almost every day. We are very happy that we know such good people!

In the nearest future I am planning to buy my own house and to bring my relatives here through ILC Canada (the ILC office in Canada).

I would like to recommend people, who want to live or work abroad, to make their first step – to go to International Labour Centre!