Moldova: Compassion, solidarity - and warmth

‘These bags of coal will get me through the winter,’ says an elderly woman, a local resident of Soroca, the district in north-east Moldova, with the administrative centre located on the right bank of the Dniester River, bordering Ukraine. She is retired and gets by on a small government pension, but used to work on a farm for many years to make a living. Now, she waits in line with fellow women in need, asked to queue at the roadside next to a new church in the periphery of the city. This is where the coal distribution organised by Soarta and funded by DRC, is taking place.  

‘Soarta’ means ‘fate’ or ‘luck’ in Romanian - one of the primary languages spoken in Moldova along with Russian – reflecting the turbulent history of the country that gained its independence in 1991. 

The notion of both fate and luck seems to resonate all too well with the people patiently standing in line on this cold December day with harsh winter months in the horizon. They are among a group of 1,700 people in Moldova’s northern Soroca identified and selected by Soarta as being specifically vulnerable and in need of winter assistance – just as their neighbours from Ukraine now among them, who have fled war and trauma from months of shelling, air raid alarms, and with whom they have in common a profound uncertainty of tomorrow.  

Temporary protection in private homes and public buildings 

Moldova is among the countries sharing borders with west and south Ukraine, and is home to a small country with only 2.6 million inhabitants and one of the highest levels of poverty in Europe. Since the beginning of the large-scale displacement following February 2022 events in Ukraine, millions of people have crossed into neighbouring countries – including Moldova - to either transit and move onwards or remain in proximity of Ukraine and seek temporary protection and refuge with their neighbour in west.  

Nearly 100,000 people from Ukraine are right now hosted in Moldova, the majority of them - around 70% - in private accommodation and the rest in some of the 66 government-run Refugee Accommodation Centres set up in empty schools, kindergartens and other facilities that provide space for temporary shelter.  

Here, and since the onset of the crisis, Ukrainians find temporary home, food, clothes, hygiene items, safety and a hand to feel consoled and stronger, at a time where many of the 2.6 million people in Moldova are struggling with economic challenges, increasing inflation, a spiralling energy crisis, and job losses.