Manitoba·NewA chance meeting at a Winnipeg playground saved a single mom from daycare dilemma. Faith and Hugh Campbell provided desperately needed child care for Ukrainian refugee Julia Dryhach and her young son Makar.Winnipeg couple steps in to rescue single mom and her son from daycare nightmareMeghan Fowler · for CBC News · Posted: Sep 28, 2025 12:16 PM EDT | Last Updated: 14 minutes agoUkrainian refugee Julia Dryhach tried to make a life with her son Makar in Winnipeg after arriving in 2023. She struggled to find reliable child care before meeting a couple who stepped up to help. (Marcus Fowler)Julia Dryhach needed help, and quickly. Having escaped Ukraine at the outbreak of the war with Russia in early 2022, Dryhach and her son, Makar, had made their way to Canada via Germany, settling in Winnipeg in 2023. Dryhach, a lawyer, found work in the city as a legal assistant but couldn’t find reliable child care for Makar, then 4.In a moment of despair, Dryhach even contemplated abandoning her attempt to make a new life in Canada. “I was even thinking, like, OK, so maybe I should go back to Ukraine and find a small village that probably won’t get hurt by Russia,” she said. “To be honest, it was really hard, and I was absolutely desperate.”- Julia DryhachShe faced the real possibility of losing her job should child care not materialize. “We had a difficult time finding daycare. To be honest, it was really hard, and I was absolutely desperate.”Enter Faith Campbell. In September 2024, the two women struck up a conversation on the playground at Roméo-Dallaire School in Winnipeg. Dryhach shared her child-care struggles with Campbell.Instantly, the 69-year-old knew she and her husband Hugh, 73, could help. “We think you need some support, so I want us to be your Canadian family,” Campbell told Dryhach at the time. “And further to that, we would like to provide child care for your little son.” Single mom Julia Dryhach, left, found much-needed help and support from strangers Faith and Hugh Campbell. The Winnipeg couple provides daycare for Dryhach’s son, Makar. (Marcus Fowler)So Campbell and her husband provided after-school care for Makar almost daily, picking him up from school and taking him home to their place until Dryhach finished work. (Dryhach’s story is now the focus of a new short video created by local filmmaker Marcus Fowler in collaboration with CBC Manitoba’s Creator Network.) Having reliable daycare was just one of the struggles Dryhach, now 37, faced in her new Canadian life. She struggled to fit in, wasn’t sure about Canadian customs and was daunted by creating a community for herself and son. “When I came to Canada, it’s hard to trust at the very beginning, when you don’t know the system, you don’t know … how everything works,” she said. Campbell and Hugh could relate. They spent time working in both Egypt and India for a couple of years between 2004 and 2010 — Campbell headed up a special education department while Hugh was a school counsellor.They knew what it felt like to be strangers in a foreign land. Since moving to Winnipeg in 2023, Ukrainian refugee Julia Dryhach and her son Makar have faced some challenges. The single mom, a lawyer by trade, works as a legal assistant. (Marcus Fowler)Campbell experienced the kindness of locals first-hand, and it made a big impression on her.”It’s not hard, then, for me to think, ‘If I were new to Canada, how would it be for me?’ I would want someone to mentor me,” she said. Looking back, that chance meeting at a Winnipeg playground in 2024 transformed Dryhach’s life. “That was such a release. It’s even hard to describe this emotion, when I knew that I’ve met people that I can trust,” she said. Beyond child care, the Campbells and Dryhach and her son often celebrate holidays, go on vacations and attend church together. And the new relationship has enriched Campbell’s life too, she said. “Do refugees have a lot to teach us as Canadians? Absolutely,” she said. “To be part of someone’s life, even if it’s tough, it’s the right thing to do, and it is so important.”ABOUT THE AUTHORMeghan Fowler is a self-taught “sewist” in Winnipeg with a love of learning, a passion for creativity, and a desire to live sustainably. She divides her time between sewing, homemaking and pastoral work in her local church.
No child care, family or options equals 1 big problem for Ukrainian refugee
