in Chatsworth, Grey Highlands, Southgate, West Grey
February 20, 2025
BY JOHN BUTLER — Husband and wife Heiner Philipp and Susanne von Toerne are a team. They’d like to make the team bigger and stronger by inviting the public to participate in the work of the Sunflower Foundation, a charitable organization they recently founded as part of their ongoing determination to help Ukrainian newcomers to get fully on their feet in Canada. They hope that donations to the Sunflower Foundation will help integrate these Ukrainians into a new country that they are coming to love as deeply as those who were born here.
Heiner is an engineer and businessman who operates Ruralnet, an internet service provider headquartered just outside Flesherton. Susanne was educated as a surgeon in her birth country, Germany. While she doesn’t practice in Canada, she has spent extensive stints working overseas with refugees and others from war torn nations.
Their commitment to help Ukrainian newcomers started three years ago when one of Heiner’s employees involved with a church in Ukraine sought Heiner’s help to get a family from that church into Canada. Heiner was glad to help and Susanne stepped up immediately to help too: given her roots in Germany, she knew of safe towns and houses in Germany where Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion could stay until a friendly country would accept them. Canada was one of those countries. Heiner’s company subsequently made substantial ongoing financial contributions to Ukrainian relief efforts here in Canada and overseas.
Several times Susanne drove a van from Germany through Poland to the Polish-Ukrainian border to rescue Ukrainian families and bring them to safety in Germany until their applications to come to Canada were approved. She and Heiner then helped them with the costs of coming here and establishing themselves when they arrived, often with nothing but a suitcase and hope for a safer future. These Ukrainians were admitted under a special visa program that does not guarantee that they can stay here for the long haul. But on arrival these families begin to establish roots here. The Canadian Government gave them $3,000 per adult and $1,500 per child, but beyond that, they are financially on their own in a new country. Their children enroll in schools and the adult family members seek work, or seek the preconditions for work — English language training and vocational upgrading. Most newcomers — especially the women who head many of these families, says Susanne – have come to hope Canada is the place where their families can live permanently and safely as industrious contributors to Canadian society.
The people of Grey County opened their hearts to these newcomers. Some acted as host to newcomer families, until they could get their own housing. Some provided money or supplies or volunteer help through Grey County Cares, an organization founded by local playwright and bookstore operator Kevin Land, to help people from war ravaged counties. And Heiner and Susanne continued to provide their own money — several million dollars, at this point — into helping the newcomers — help that transcends money, since Susanne works for free and virtually, full time helping with the integration of Ukrainian newcomers, and Heiner helps raise funds and supplies to assist with Ukraine’s continued defense against Russian aggression. The couple even bought a house in Owen Sound where some newcomers live until they find other accommodation.
At present, thanks to their efforts and community support, 21 individuals in eight families are being helped — and will continue to need help until they are self supporting (other newcomers helped by Heiner and Susanne are already supporting themselves.)
That’s where the Foundation comes in, says Susanne, since it can issue tax receipts for donations. Donors to the Foundation get a chance to see how their contributions help a specific set of newcomer families living not far from us, start to finish. And while the Foundation will respect the privacy of those it helps, Susanne says that through its website, the Foundation will share with donors the successes achieved by these families. January alone, says Susanne, witnessed the graduation of two young newcomers from college educational programs — a young woman as a medical aestheticist and a young man as a laboratory assistant. As well in January, a child entered a daycare program so his mother could take a job, and one adult newcomer entered a college-level English language training program. As well, a young man got his beginner’s driving license — a significant step for newcomer families since public transportation is limited in Grey County. Donations to the Foundation will also help Heiner and Susanne to continue purchasing modest but reliable used cars for newcomers so they can seek work in nearby communities. And for the foreseeable future, Susanne will remain a full-time unpaid volunteer doing the legwork necessary to help newcomers navigate complex Canadian systems that are new and often puzzling for them.
Susanne points out that people can still donate to the Foundation until February 28, for the tax year 2024. She also hopes that people receiving their one-time $200.00 payments from the government will consider donating it the Sunflower Foundation.
Heiner and Susanne say how important it is for all of us to understand the history and national traits of this special group of newcomer families. Ukraine is a vast fertile territory whose people who have lived for most of their existence under the yoke of foreign powers: Ukraine as a sovereign nation is fairly new. For much of history, Ukrainian territory was split between the Russian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fleeing the despotism of their foreign masters, many Ukrainians found their way to Canada as immigrants to the farmlands of the Canadian West in the nineteenth century — immigrants prized for their agricultural skills. Over 1,200,000 Canadians are of full or partial Ukrainian origin, giving Canada the world's third-largest Ukrainian population behind Ukraine itself and Russia.
For some of the time Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, life was brutal. In the 1930s, during what Ukrainians call the Holodomor (meaning “death by hunger” in Ukrainian), about five million Ukrainians died of starvation as its abundant grain crops were seized to feed people in other parts of the Soviet Union, especially Russia. From the vast fertile plains and gray industrial cities of Ukraine, emerged a nation of adaptive survivors — people who place great pride in self-reliance, people reserved at first with strangers, but warmly hospitable to those they see as their friends. Ukrainians have every reason not to trust governments or ideologies, and every reason to trust family, community, and the land that nourishes a nation. Their national heroes are not kings and emperors. Their heroes are their poets, artists, novelists, inventors and engineers.
On a wall of the dining room in Susanne’s and Heiner’s home, is a gift from a Ukrainian family. It is framed portrait, small enough to fit into the suitcase of a fleeing family. It is a portrait of Taras Shevchenko, the nineteenth century epic nationalist poet of Ukraine. The couple says that modest portrait speaks volumes about Ukrainian pride, culture and generosity.
Why did the couple decide to name their latest humanitarian venture the “Sunflower” Foundation? Susanne points out that the sunflower (called “soniashnyk” in Ukrainian) is a traditional national symbol of Ukraine, representing hope, resilience, and strength. More recently, in the face of Russian invasion, its symbolism has expanded to include resistance, unity and hope. As well, says Susanne, sunflowers are a key component of the Ukrainian economy: in 2021, Ukraine produced one-third of the world's supply of sunflower oil — fitting evidence of the industriousness of the Ukrainian people.
Both Heiner and Susanne point out that their work with Ukrainian newcomers has transformed them profoundly. Heiner says that material success doesn’t drive him as much now as it once did. Helping others is now more important to him, and the treasures offered by family and community life are lessons he has learned from his Ukrainian friends. As for Susanne, she says she has learned to no longer take safety, home and freedom for granted. “I see how precious these dimensions of life are, and how easily and suddenly that can be threatened. When I get home after my 6,000 kilometres of travel each month on behalf of Ukrainian friends, I have a deeper appreciation of what ‘home’ is.”
The Sunflower Foundation website is at www.cdn-sunflower.ca. Susanne von Toerne can be reached at susekanada@gmail.com.
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