During the work process of the Mobile Team – Women and Girls Safe Space, it has become a wonderful tradition to talk about how the destinies of refugee families from Ukraine are settling, families who were forced to come to our country due to military actions. Today’s story is about a family from the Roma ethnic group in Ukraine. A family of four (two minor children, the mother, and the grandmother) left their home, their jobs, and fled Ukraine right at the start of the war. Romina’s older sons and husband remained in Ukraine. They settled in one of the villages in northern Moldova, where the City Hall allocated them a small house.
Initially, Liliana, the psychologist of the Mobile Team – Women and Girls Safe Space, tells us, “at our meetings, Romina and her mother were more isolated, mostly listening, speaking little, they were closed off and did not express their thoughts and opinions on a certain issue, they did not participate in discussions.” After a while, Romina came to me and requested an individual psychological consultation, where she told me her story: even when they lived in Ukraine, she and her family were subjected to discrimination on national grounds, the attitude towards her children in school was biased, and neighbors barely interacted with them. Upon arriving in Moldova, they behaved very cautiously – a foreign country, laws they didn’t know, an unknown language and culture. The entire family received temporary protection in Moldova, the children immediately went to school, where instruction is in Russian, and began to intensively study the Romanian language. Romina and her mother started to beautify the area around the house, planted flowers, and brought the house into order.
According to Romina, thanks to the meetings with the Mobile Team – Women and Girls Safe Space, they began to feel like full members of society, they learned about their rights, about the fact that there are people, organizations, and specialists who will come to their aid in a difficult moment, regardless of their nationality. Romina also mentioned that, thanks to their meetings, she got to know other refugees from Ukraine better, they started communicating with each other, helping each other, supporting and empathizing. “The woman is grateful to our country, to the simple citizens of Moldova for their support and sympathy.”
“She is infinitely grateful to the Mobile Team – Women and Girls Safe Space for the help, for the information, for the sincere communication. Yes, the pain and suffering, the fear and terror they experienced at the beginning of the war are still present, there are emotional and physical consequences (insomnia, anxiety, crying, and exhaustion), worries for relatives remaining in Ukraine leave their mark on psychological health, but the confidence that they will always be listened to, that they will be helped and supported instills strength and hope in them.”
Finally, Liliana told us that “it is always a pleasure to hear such words of gratitude from beneficiaries. Their trust in us, in our professionalism, in our ability to help gives us even more energy and strength for further work.”
Thanks to UNFPA Moldova, thanks to the support of colleagues and the team of the Artemida Public Association, we have been providing quality and professional services to our beneficiaries for three years. And I would like to emphasize that all the words of gratitude we hear in the field are a thank you to ALL of US, because together we are doing a great thing – supporting people who are in so much need of our help!
We, at the Artemida Public Association, are convinced that only together, through joint efforts, can we face all challenges.
