By IsraAID Staff | IsraAID Moldova
IsraAID’s Emergency Response team arrived in Moldova on February 27, just three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, to respond urgently to the rapidly unfolding refugee crisis. Within weeks we began operations to Romania in order to provide aid directly into southern Ukraine, and in July we began working in Ukraine itself. 10 months into the crisis, 17.7 million people need humanitarian aid.1 IsraAID is responding to the critical needs of vulnerable people -- including refugees, internally displaced people, children, and the elderly -- in Ukraine and Moldova. Simultaneously, we are planning for the long-term recovery efforts that will be necessary in the years ahead.
Protection & Psychosocial Support
Over 527,000 Ukrainian refugees have entered Moldova, and 91,700 have stayed in the country - the highest influx per capita in Europe.2 IsraAID is supporting both refugee and host communities, working in four locations across the country to provide Ukrainian refugees with integrated psychosocial, educational, and child protection services.
When the refugee crisis began, IsraAID established Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs) in communal shelters. These provided therapeutic and recreational play, crafts, and educational opportunities for more than 2,500 children. Now that most refugees live in the community, we run daily programs at the Sunflower Center in Chisinau, the Moldovan capital. Our support groups and arts, music, and sports clubs offer recreation, socializing, and resilience-building for some 270 refugee children and 40-50 caregivers weekly. We employ Ukrainian refugees as facilitators, providing some normalcy and a stable income as they adjust to their current reality.
In October we expanded to Balti, the second-largest city in Moldova. We facilitate a Community House to provide essential psychosocial support for 350 Ukrainians, including 150 children. The center is equipped with a remote learning center to support both Ukrainian and Moldovan children, after our assessment visit found that just 8% of local refugee children were in school. We also celebrate special occasions; recently we held a St Nicholas' Celebration for refugee children and their mothers in Balti, enabling families to have fun and relieve stress together.
IsraAID's facilitators and partners are trained to identify child protection concerns and refer cases to welfare authorities, as child protection issues often spike in emergencies. At the start of the crisis, we supported local authorities in Moldova to strengthen their specialist services for refugees.
Education
In November, IsraAID and our partners opened two new multifunctional learning centers: one in Tudora near the Ukrainian border, and another in the Sunflower Center in Chisinau. Open to both Ukrainian refugee and Moldovan host children, multifunctional learning centers aim to facilitate access to remote learning provided by the Ukrainian government for refugee children at the same time as promoting integration.
Thank you for your support in this ongoing crisis.
By IsraAID Staff | IsraAID Moldova
By IsraAID Staff | IsraAID Moldova
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