The rapidly growing refugee crisis sparked by the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022 saw Lumos, along with many other child rights protection organisations, shift towards the provision of humanitarian aid. Thanks to the support of both international and local partners and donors, we’ve been able to provide urgent life-changing support to internally displaced families in Ukraine as well as to refugees settling in Moldova.
One such partnership has been the implementation of the “Ukrainian Refugee Crisis Response in Moldova” project, financed by Terre des Hommes Netherlands and started in December 2022. The six-month project had a total budget of just under 200,000 Euros and was designed to support local authorities from four districts – Floreşti, Ialoveni, Glodeni and Teleneşti – in their efforts to provide help and support for refugee children and families hosted by local families. The project’s main objectives were:
Activities
To ensure the smooth implementation of the project and ensure the achievement of its objectives, four cooperation agreements with local public authorities from Floreşti, Ialoveni, Glodeni and Teleneşti districts were signed, and activity plans have been developed in partnership with them, meeting approval by the respective District Councils.
The activities included within the project involved refugee children and their families as well as those from the host communities, professionals from social assistance, education and healthcare sectors, and local public authorities. Safeguarding and child protection were prioritised, with Risk Assessments conducted for each activity to identify and eliminate any possible risk and to ensure the safety of all participants.
Some of the activities included:
- Activities for refugee and host family children to encourage social cohesion and child and youth participation
- Support with accessing social, education and healthcare services
- Distribution of humanitarian aid
- Building professional capacities of frontline specialists through training and methodological assistance sessions, workshops and other meetings.
Through these activities, 900 people – refugee and host community children and their families – have received life-changing help.
Training professionals
To make support the proper delivery of assistance, Lumos conducted a series of training sessions for public authorities and professionals from the education, social and healthcare sectors focused on working with refugees, providing help in emergencies, identifying and preventing all kinds of abuse (including trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse) and organising social cohesion activities with refugee children and children from host families in the local community.
”I’m thankful for the offered opportunity to learn and gain experience of working with refugee children,” said Ekaterina Turcan, a psychologist from Glodeni. “It was not easy- it was challenging and demanding. However, with Lumos’s support and thanks to all the methodological assistance and training we’ve received, we managed to have an impact on the lives of all refugees that found their temporary homes within our district”.
Mariana Balan, a child protection specialist from the district department of social assistance, added: “On behalf of the entire team of professionals involved in the implementation of the project here in Telenești, I’d like to thank Lumos representatives for their dedication and support, for their readiness to always provide guidance and answer our questions about helping refugee children and their families. And a special thank you to Terre des Hommes Netherlands for helping all this happen, for their generosity and for choosing Lumos as their implementation partners.”
Over the course of the project, over 1,300 people participated in training sessions and other capacity building activities aimed at strengthening the professional abilities of the representatives from the social assistance, education, and healthcare sectors to provide assistance to refugee children and their families, as well as to work effectively with host communities.
Aid distribution
”We tried a new approach with the distribution of humanitarian aid this year,” explained Lumos’s Valentina Ghenciu, the manager of the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis Response in Moldova project. ”Instead of physically distributing packages with pre-selected food and other items we signed a contract with a carefully-selected retailer and issued vouchers for the refugees to spend on what they need the most.”
“This gives us the freedom of choice and the possibility to get the type of food and products we need and want,”said Svitlana, a refugee from Donetsk who has been in Moldova for over a year.
Ekaternia, a mother of two young children who fled her home in Nikolayev in February 2022 and who we met just before Easter, agrees: ”This is a wonderful idea – to offer us the possibility of choosing what to have for the festive meal We’re grateful for any help received, however, these vouchers allow us to make our own choice and to get something different, including perishable food such as fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, poultry, meat, and – why not feel a little happier having a festive meal during the holiday.”
Valentina explained: “Vouchers give both us and the recipients more flexibility as they do not expire for a full year and can cover the cost of all type of food items, providing a more balanced and nutritious diet to refugee children and families. This also gives these families the power of choice and the feeling that they are the ones who get to decide what’s best for them. This is also important for their wellbeing, recovery, and the return to a more normal way of life.”
By the end of the project, 2,578 vouchers had been distributed to refugee and host community children, young people, and adults, based on the results of their needs assessment conducted by local consultants, and coordinated with public authorities and Lumos.
Youth participation
Lumos has also created eight child friendly spaces (CFS) within all four districts in consultation with various stakeholders, including of course children themselves. This has involved visiting different communities and schools to identify suitable locations and training personnel on organising and conducting activities with the active involvement of refugee and host community children. Once the CFS were set up, all were equipped with books, board and social games, colouring materials and other resources By the end of June 2023 Lumos representatives had organised and conducted 12 activities within all eight CFS, attended by 220 refugee children and those from the host communities. In addition to these, there were also many other activities organised by local staff working within child friendly spaces.
In March 2023, 26 young people aged 12 to 17 from the four districts (including 18 refugees) participated in a Lumos-led Youth Forum about civil activism and participation in the community. They learned new things, shared experiences and positive examples and developed their own initiatives aimed at facilitating the social cohesion within the communities in which they live. The busy agenda included sessions delivered by professional trainers, including a Ukrainian refugee, , as well as meetings with representatives of the Moldova Parliament and UNHCR. “I’ve lived with my family in Italy and in Hungary. However, there weren’t such activities organised for young refugees in any of those countries,” said Alina, a 15-year-old girl from Nikolaev currently living in Ialoveni district.
A visit to Chișinău in mid-May offered a unique experience for refugee children and their families to celebrate the International Day of Families. 40 of the most vulnerable refugee children were been offered the opportunity to tour the capital city of Moldova and to directly participate in the process of selecting and purchasing seasonal clothing items for themselves.
”My son enjoyed the tour. He said that many buildings reminded him of Odesa, where we came from. He also liked the fact that for the first time he was offered the freedom of choosing clothes by himself”, said Valentina.
“It is an exciting experience for our children, especially for the youngest one,” said Ekaterina, a mum of four. ”They get to choose, feel, and try the new clothes as opposed to just accepting whatever is being donated to them. It’s something that no other organisation helping us refugees, has offered before”.
Simona Ruznic, Child Protection in Emergencies Expert from Terre des Hommes Netherlands , said: „”After the onset of war in Ukraine, TdH NL partnered with local organisations in the region to provide assistance. In Moldova, one of our partner organisations was Lumos, an incredible team of professionals with whose support we were able to make significant contributions to both local and refugee children and their families.
