Community rallies for Vernon mother of 16 leaving abusive marriage

Vernon’s Ludmilla Ufimzeff has 16 kids, speaks little English and is trying to pull her family out of $40,000 of debt.

Ufimzeff, 48, moved to Canada from Germany 25 years ago and found herself in an abusive marriage and eventually five boys and 11 girls. Now, she’s out of her marriage but she’s left with credit card debt, no job and a house full of kids to take care of.

When iNFOnews.ca spoke to Ufimzeff, the interview translated by her eldest daughter, she said that she couldn’t bring herself to go into detail about her situation since she’s still working through years of trauma.

The community heard about Ufimzeff’s story through a GoFundMe set up by her friend Tracey Stahlbrand, which has now raised $30,000.

“We’re so thankful to the community and we’re just so thankful,” Stahlbrand said.

Stahlbrand explained how Ufimzeff was confined, controlled and abused for years with no help from her strict Slavic church community.

“Abuse began three days after the wedding. She became pregnant immediately and food was withheld during pregnancy,” Stahlbrand wrote in the GoFundMe. “She had been confined to her bedroom in the family home. Because she spoke no English, she lost her voice, first in her marriage then in her community. Although she repeatedly went to religious leaders in her slavic church community for help over the years, the response was not helpful.”

Ufimzeff separated from her husband and received a protection order from the court against him in February 2023 with help from the BC Family Maintenance Agency.

“There was sadly no support from her husband’s brothers or their families, who knew of the abuse. In fact they have cut themselves and their families off from Ludmilla and her children. The church community she had gone to for 25 years excommunicated her for separating,” Stahlbrand said.

Since then she found a new church to go to, where she met Stahlbrand, and is rebuilding her family’s life. During the allegedly abusive period, the kids weren’t able to access doctors or go to school, but now all the school-age kids can go to class and get the medical care they need.

The court decided that her husband would get supervised visits and he had to pay child support, but Stahlbrand said those payments haven’t come through.

Without a source of income, the family has been surviving on credit cards since 2023, and some of the older daughters have also taken out credit cards to help out.

“They are completely out of finances. They need to pay down the credit cards which have fed the family since February 2023. They need help to survive,” Stahlbrand said.

Stahlbrand said they didn’t want to name Ufimzeff’s husband or talk about the Slavic church out of fear.

Ufimzeff said the family’s plan is to stay in Vernon since the kids like their school and the new church community they found.

“They need your help to go further. In desperation, they are asking the community to see them, to please extend a hand and donate and help them get through this new hardship. Every dollar helps,” Stahlbrand said.