Nestled in the southeastern corner of Europe, winters in Moldova can be dreary and harsh, but the road from the Ukrainian border across the bare brown hills is like a ribbon of hope.
For Larysa, who hails from Ukraine’s Donetsk region, silent health means safety. It meant a pause in the constant barrage of shells, sirens and wailing drones, rushing into bunkers, the darkness, the cold, the stench and dust of war. The horror can be put aside, and life can begin anew.
When Larysa got off the bus from the border to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was stationed outside the small town of Palanca, she left the Donetsk region after making the 2,000-kilometer journey in three days with her ailing daughter.
‘Mom, shall we wake up tomorrow?’
Her conversation, like all people who have just come out of the hell of war, went up and down erratically. Streams brought silence, choked tears, and memories too raw. At first skeptical, then relieved. However, she is already planning her next trip, to Romania.
“When I came to Bucharest, I wanted to apply for a job, find a job, a place to stay,” she said. “The most important thing is that there are no shootings there, it’s peaceful and your kids go to bed without saying ‘mom, are we going to wake up tomorrow?’“
Larrysa and her daughter were two of several dozen people sitting around a tent organized by the IOM and other agencies. Before the bus departs for the 10-hour journey to the Romanian capital, you have time to enjoy a hot meal, get a health check, gather essential information for the days and weeks ahead, and even take a shower. .
Lars Johan Lonnback, Head of IOM’s Mission to Moldova, recalls: “When we first arrived at the end of February, right after the Russian invasion, there was complete chaos on the border. “It became clear immediately that, along with food, shelter, medical care and counseling, transportation was in great demand. Well-intentioned volunteers have arrived, offering to bring vulnerable families – people you must remember leaving their people behind to fight – to Portugal, Norway, Italy. It is completely disorganized and is a dream scenario for traffickers, who show up when people are most vulnerable.”
Buses to Bucharest
Lonnback also sees clearly that thousands of people crossing the border will put enormous pressure on Moldova’s scarce resources, potentially leading to a social crisis. IOM, in partnership with the Moldovan authorities and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), assessed the need and worked towards finding a solution. The partners quickly established a dedicated bus service to help clear the border, protect vulnerable people and add a range of services to the large-scale relief effort.
In the same vein, IOM has been helping people, especially the most disadvantaged – including people with disabilities, the elderly and those who are bedridden – reach European Union countries by plane. . So far, more than 15,000 people have entered the European Union by bus and plane with the support of the IOM, which Lonnback believes has helped avert the difficult situation in Moldova, a country already covered by poverty and social stress.
“It is important that the international community continue to help Moldova in any way it can,” he said. “We have seen that Ukrainians are proud and resilient, and they really don’t want to leave their homes. However, as attacks on infrastructure increase and as the snow piles up, life becomes more and more difficult., simply exists. We have established a flexible and responsive system, and we can scale it up in case a large number of people again flee Ukraine.”
About 10% of those who fled Ukraine via Moldova decided to stay in the country. Many of those who stayed came from cities relatively close to the border; have family and friends in Moldova; or, like people in any war, they want to be close to their homeland.
Four generations uprooted
Svitlana, a 60-year-old real estate agent from Odesa, 40 kilometers from Moldova, is now a mainstay for four generations of women living in a small house about an hour’s drive from Chisinau. She spoke slowly, sometimes mechanically, describing the terrible things she had seen and heard. Her mother read quietly as her daughter prepared the borscht and her granddaughter sketched.
But, she didn’t cry. Svitlana gives the impression that sadness is something she’s not meant to be, won’t make time for it. Her husband and son-in-law are on the front lines, and it is her duty to lead the family, alone.
Moldova has welcomed them warmly with humanitarian aid and simple kindness, she said. She and her daughter are learning Romanian so that they can compete in the local job market and use their skills for the benefit of the host country and their own. Although they appreciate the help they have received, they do not want to survive on it.
“It is sustainability through solidarity,” says Margo Baars, IOM’s Emergency Coordinator in Moldova, describing the organization’s approach. “We provide livelihood support, small business grants, training and transitional shelter assistance, especially to help people get through this difficult winter. One of the main things we do is provide psychological support, because people have been through so much and need more than just physical support.”
Leaving Ukraine with mothers, young children and grandmothers, old men. Yurii, 73, vividly remembers her parents talking about the Second World War and never thought she would witness such death and destruction in her hometown. “It was horrible,” he said. “Every day we have victims brought in. It’s the same every day. There are too many victims, too much grief, too many people suffering.”
Five-month-old Ivan, peacefully conceived and born during the war in Ukraine, is now safe in Moldova with his mother Ksenia. While heavily pregnant, Ksenia ran through a minefield as cluster bombs rained down. She falls, but escapes, with the birthmark on Ivan left behind as a memory of the day they both overcame death together.
“I want this war to end so I can enjoy motherhood to the fullest,” says Ksenia. “I think I would go crazy with this fight without Ivan. He was the one who lit up all the horrors.
In this cold, miserable field, her smile was a ray of sunshine.
