“As long as you don’t lose hope 🌟, you can cope with any setbacks.”
This saying perfectly suits the heroine of my story, whose name is Irina. She arrived in Moldova 🇲🇩 half a year after the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦 began, coming from a big and beautiful city, leaving behind her job, apartment and loved ones 💔. Irina stopped in a small town in northern Moldova, where she managed to rent an apartment 🏡.
We met for the first time at our meeting with beneficiaries, to which Irina came together with other refugees. From the very first meetings, Irina was very active and enthusiastically participated in the discussions 🎉. She always had the opportunity to receive psychological counseling 🧠, to talk about her impressions of Moldova, about her successes in learning the Romanian language, about her fears and concerns about her relatives and close friends who remained in Ukraine.
Irina began to actively participate, on a volunteer basis, in the social life of the city, organizing small trips 🚌 for refugees from Ukraine and collaborating with the City Hall Administration. Irina became that active link between the Mobile Team – Safe Space for Women and Girls. Women and Girls Safe Space and the refugees in this city, always ready to help newly arrived people from Ukraine with advice, direct them to the right organization and help them find housing. Irina proudly and joyfully participated in the forum dedicated to the third anniversary of the creation of the UNFPA Moldova Mobile Teams.
When Irina told me that for a long time she had been a victim of gender-based violence 😔, I referred her to colleagues from the Case Management Team. A psychologist and a social worker worked with her. Irina remembers with gratitude the collaboration and relationship she developed with the Mobile Team – Safe Space for Women and Girls. Women and Girls Safe Space No. 1, about the fact that now she can say with confidence that the Artemida Public Association and UNFPA Moldova are those loyal comrades and friends 🤗 of refugees from Ukraine, and the employees are always ready to come to the rescue, provide support, listen, guide and provide professional assistance 🤝.
The words of gratitude 🙏 of our beneficiaries are addressed both to the Mobile Team – Safe Space for Women and Girls. Women and Girls Safe Space, as well as to the colleagues and administration of AO Artemida, the UNFPA organization, to all those who conscientiously and professionally fulfill their duty to help beneficiaries, victims of gender-based violence.
🟠We are convinced that only together, through joint, consolidated efforts, can we face the challenges.
