When all is said and done, there could be about 15 Ukrainian refugee families that call the Kamloops area home.

That is according to the Executive Director of Kamloops Immigrant Services, France Lamontagne.

“When will they arrive, we don’t know yet. And how many either. We can probably look at our experience with the Syrian crisis where we hosted about 15 families,” she said. “Probably, we can see this year two to three families arriving and maybe a few more next year and so forth.”

Speaking on the NL Noon Report, Lamontagne says refugee settlement agencies will be meeting with the government Wednesday to discuss how to move forward.

“When the refugees arrive, they have specialized services to help them from the get go for the next few weeks and few months. And then, they are invited to go to certain areas where there is housing and support services,” Lamontagne added.

“That is when we might start seeing government assisted refugees coming to Kamloops.”

Lamontagne says private groups could also host additional Ukrainian families, working in conjunction with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

“There is a beautiful Ukrainian community in Kamloops that will help in supporting newcomers from Ukraine,” she said.

At least one local group, Refugees and Friends Together (RAFT) Kamloops, is holding a fundraising dinner next week to help potentially resettle Ukrainians who are feeling violence in their country.

“We know that the government of Canada is going to be starting to let refugees come to Canada again and we want to be ready to bring people to Kamloops to settle,” RAFT Chair, Nancy Bepple, told NL News. “The thing that we need is to raise money. That is the biggest barrier to bringing families to Kamloops.”

Over two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion about two weeks ago.