Emergency aid for Ukraine

At the beginning of March, when the war in Ukraine started, Elena and her parents decided to leave their home in a small town near Odessa with their sweet dog. When they finally landed at the CONCORDIA transit centre in Ploiesti, Romania, the four of them were tired and exasperated.

20-year-old Elena is studying medicine - currently online - she wants to become an endocrinologist. She is a remarkable young woman, helpful, intelligent and very dedicated. Because Elena speaks English very well, she has become a real asset to our work with Ukrainian refugees. For the past three months, she has divided her time between her studies and assisting at the CONCORDIA transit centre. Her translations are a great help to us in welcoming new people who often arrive scared and discouraged. Elena also writes the weekly shopping lists so that we can get the most necessary things for the refugees: Hygiene articles, clothes, food.

"My life is completely different from three months ago, everything has changed. Since then I have been at home here. Sometimes it's hard for me, especially because of my studies and exams, but it is what it is and I have to move forward. I am happy that I can help the people here."

Not everyone stays in the safety of a foreign country

Elena's sister had also fled to Romania with her husband, but a few days ago she travelled back to Ukraine. But not at all because the danger is over. The sister works for a water supply company in the city and was called to the office. Afraid of losing her job, she returned to the war zone.

Elena's 74-year-old grandmother did not want to leave her home country in the first place. She stayed in Ukraine and watches over her small house.

A difficult situation for Elena and her parents. Knowing themselves to be safe while their loved ones are exposed to constant danger in the war zone is stressful for the family.

"We hope that we too will be able to return home in a few weeks. Even though we have everything we need here - and we are very grateful for that - we miss our house, our country and our loved ones," Elena tells us.

At the end of the partly newly asphalted road in the border village of Palanca between Moldova and Ukraine, there is a small tent city that has been set up there for Ukrainians who have fled. It is raining cats and dogs. Nevertheless, the atmosphere in the tent is very special. A few people are sitting at tables, eating and talking. At the CONCORDIA stand, there is placinte and coffee today.

Among the volunteers who help here are Ukrainian refugees. Darja and her daughter come from Odessa, they fled to Moldova on the second day of the war. They have been here for days, welcoming new arrivals, distributing food and comforting words. The two women are currently staying at our social centre in Tudora. Every day they hope for an end to the war.  They have maintained contact with their neighbours in Odessa. Every day they ask on the phone about the situation at home, whether their house is still standing, whether everyone is still unharmed.

But then the mood changes, something is in the air. Liuba comes into the room and tells the children that a civilian building has been hit back home. Even though the children do not yet fully understand what their mother has said, they repeat her words. This news on a festive day is a setback, Liuba makes sure on the phone that none of her relatives have been hurt.

What the children look forward to most

Then comes the most longed-for moment for the children - sticking the pictures on the Easter eggs. This involves putting stickers on the eggs and dipping them in hot water, which makes the pictures take the shape of the eggs. Even a few Muslim children join in. You can see the pride in the little ones' eyes as they lift their finished creations out of the water.

Despite the pain the mothers carry in their hearts during these difficult times, they show gentleness and love to their children not only on these holidays.

Before Arina fled, she lived and studied in Kiev. Together with her family of seven, who lived in Izmail, she made her way to Romania. At first they found shelter with helpful people. But then they heard about the CONCORDIA transit centre in Ploiesti and came to us.

It is a challenging situation for our colleagues in the neighbouring countries of Ukraine. On the one hand, they are happy that we can offer the refugee families a place to sleep, warm meals and the necessary care and a place to catch their breath. On the other hand, it is immensely sad to see how many frightened people have to flee their devastated homes.

At CONCORDIA, we do our best to offer traumatised people from Ukraine a safe place to rest and gather strength. For people like Arina and her family, we need your support.

Their husbands brought them as close to the border as they were allowed. Olea, her 3-month-old baby Liia, her 10-year-old son Marian and her mother Valentina crossed the border on foot. When the officials saw that they had such a small baby with them, they were allowed to pass more quickly. "It was cold and Liia was screaming loudly. We were really lucky that we were allowed to get on the bus first!".

They were taken to Cimisheni, and there they were accommodated with 15 other fugitives in a room that normally serves as a summer camp for young people. For little Liia, it was far too cramped and too much hustle and bustle. Three days later, they contacted Viorica from CONCORDIA Moldova, who organised accommodation for the four of them in our house in Bolohani. There they are accommodated with some other families, but they have their own room and the necessary privacy for the little one. Liia can take her time here to cure her cold, which she probably caught on the run.

Olea is happy that she can still breastfeed her daughter and can gather new strength here to take good care of her baby. When she thinks of Ukraine, her husband, her loved ones who stayed there, she is grateful that Odessa is not yet under attack.

Marian is in 4th grade and attends online classes five days a week. In his free time, he plays with the children and the dogs that live in the house. Valentina, the grandmother, cooks with the other refugees in the kitchen, they share their thoughts, ideas and fears and also support each other. "Please tell everyone how grateful we are. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I don't know what we would have done without the help of your organisations."

New life for an empty house

The house in which the family was accommodated was a family house that was closed down some time ago and was to be sold. With the refugees arriving, the former caretaker Daniela was brought back. She quickly found inexpensive ways to remedy the deficiencies in the house and to make it a home again.

In Moldova, people firmly believe that everything happens for a reason. So the fact that this house has not yet been sold was a sign for the Moldovan colleagues that God wanted to keep it for the Ukrainians.

CONCORDIA Managing Director Bernhard Drumel and Chairperson of the Board Ulla Konrad report on their trip to Bucharest, Romania, where they visited the CONCORDIA transit centre for Ukrainian refugees:

CONCORDIA House Iuda has always been a very lively house and has a long and varied history. In addition to social housing, our CONCORDIA Academia is currently active there. And now, in these few weeks, Casa Iuda has transformed into something brand new.  

Stefania and her team have created 46 sleeping spaces for refugees in a very short time, and they keep filling them up. The house has now also become a transit centre and thus a lively meeting place for people who are passing through. A sporadic "shop for everything" with donations in kind, clothes, hygiene products etc. has been set up in the corridor.

Stefania's team is mainly made up of young volunteers - residents of the social housing that is also there. They work outside of CONCORDIA, "but they help out in every free minute. Two have even taken extra leave now. Now that we have so much to do," says Stefania and never tires of praising her helpers.

On site, we take the opportunity to talk to the refugee guests. A translator, who is also a psychologist, helps us. She is originally from Russia, she says at the beginning, a little embarrassed, as if she had to apologise for that right away. Yet it also makes this place a small bridge-builder of people from both countries who want the same thing - to live together peacefully.

At first, we only sit together in a small group, but over time we become more and more. In the end, almost 20 people share their stories with us.

We meet a mother with three children and grandparents. She was on a training course in Copenhagen when the war broke out, her children with their parents. The mother then quickly returned to Ukraine, picked up her children and parents and now they are on their way "to Europe". She wants to go to Copenhagen with her children, the grandparents to Germany. In the course of the conversation it comes out that they have ancestors in Austria... maybe Austria would also be an option.

A second woman arrived with her daughter only this morning. Their experience of flight from Odessa is still very present. During the conversation, tears flow down the mother's face again and again.

A young teacher has been here with her mother for a few days. The mother begins her story with a question to us: "Tell me, where did you get these people who work for you? Where does this high level of commitment, care and attention come from?

Since the beginning of the war, CONCORDIA has been able to set up seven emergency shelters in Moldova as a refuge for refugees. Some families stay only one night before moving on to Poland or Germany. But many also stay here, wanting to wait until the war is over and not go too far from home. One such family is Tina's.

"We were welcomed with open arms"

Tina fled to us at the beginning of March with her mother and her three youngest children - Valeriia, Oleksandr and Veronika, aged 2, 4 and 8. Her two adult sons (aged 19 and 23) stayed in Odessa.

Tina hopes they can return home soon and does not want to move to another country like other families: "At CONCORDIA we feel welcome. The Moldovans have welcomed us with open arms. As long as it is OK, we want to stay here until we can return home, to Odessa. I am so worried about my sons, I can't wait to see them again."

"He went to work and never came back home"

Inesa feels the same way, she remembers the first night of the war as if it was hours ago: "I turned on the TV and when I saw Putin's speech I knew the war was starting. My husband put on his coat and went to work without question or hesitation, because that's what the army is for - to defend the country. He went to work and didn't come home again." Shortly after, the explosions began.

An emergency kit was ready, so Inesa woke up her 6-year-old daughter Karina and decided to tell her the truth, that Russia was attacking Ukraine and they would have to flee. Inesa tried to reassure her daughter, to keep her courage up and said that everything would be fine. But then Karina asked, "Mama, won't they kill Papa?". "Papa will find peace in his heart when we are both safe," Inesa answered sadly. And so they set off for Moldova to one of our CONCORDIA homes.

Currently, many Ukrainian families are finding refuge in our emergency shelters in Moldova. CONCORDIA provides food parcels, nappies, toiletries, bedding, towels, clothes and shoes and everything needed to keep families like Tina and Inesa's well. We distribute donations every week and face daily challenges such as finding firewood for the houses.

Moldova, a state of about two and a half million people, is Ukraine's smallest and economically weakest neighbour, but has taken in more refugees from Ukraine than any other state in terms of its own population, according to UNHCR.

Our project country Romania also borders directly on Ukraine. Here, too, dramatic situations take place at border crossings, train stations and airports. People who arrive completely exhausted, don't know where to go, simply collapse.

This was the case with Karina* (19), Tamara (22) and their mother Katia (45). They arrived at the CONCORDIA transit centre in Bucharest on International Women's Day. Only a few days ago, they were running a small café in their house in Nikolayev in the south of Ukraine. But then they had to flee from the war and now nothing is the same there anymore. The CONCORDIA transit centre is a stopover for the three of them to catch their breath before they continue their journey to relatives in Georgia.

The three do not yet know what they will do in Georgia, but they know that at least they will be safe. They also feel safe at the CONCORDIA Centre, where they have a room with three beds, clean sheets, hot meals and hot water for washing for a few days.

Especially women and children are crossing the border into Moldova these days in search of protection. In the Moldovan village of Ruseștii Noi, in one of our shelter centres, they are safe.

Vera*, her husband and their two sons were living on the 7th floor of a building near Odessa airport when they saw the rockets flying across the sky.

"Even though the explosion was 50 km away, you could feel the impact and the jolt immediately. It was horrific. From then on you live in fear, constantly hearing drones, sirens, gunshots. You put on the kids and go to the basement in counted seconds, you sleep in the hallway to keep your family safe, and you feel your nerves can't take it anymore. You look on the internet and see that your acquaintances in Herson (a town in the south of Ukraine) are even worse off, you see how they survive in these conditions, and you understand that you are doing well compared to them... while it is already hell for you."

Andrei*, their 3-year-old son, thought it was a firework, while Yuri* (15 years old) was shocked, cried and asked them to pack everything and flee to another country. After a week of hoping and fearing, Vera packed a backpack and her children to take them to safety in Moldova. Her husband stayed in Ukraine, as did many others. The saddest thing is that little Andrei still does not understand where his father is. Until yesterday, he was putting him to sleep every night, and now he is gone.

When they arrived at the border, Vera and the children were received by our colleagues from CONCORDIA Moldova and taken into accommodation: in our temporary accommodation centre in Ruseștii Noi, where we take care of children and young people who cannot live with their parents, one floor was made available to accommodate refugee mothers and their children. They can stay there for the time being.

Vera is currently one of five mothers. They support each other and their children play together. For the moment, they are safe. *Names changed.

Day 6 of the Ukraine war: People cross the Moldovan border near Palanca after hours of waiting.

CONCORDIA Ukraine emergency aid in the Republic of Moldova

• at the borders, accepting and distributing relief items such as food, documents, etc.
• in the organisation of initial refugee reception centres
• delivery of food to border personnel
• transporting people from customs to Chisinau
• placement and organisation of volunteers
• newly created accommodation in now vacant buildings, as we quickly moved our children and young people to the capital: Tudora, Bolohani, Nemteni, Rusestii Noi, Stauceni + Riscani.