In the centre of Moldova, Cărpineni village, 8000 habitants, mobilized right after the war started in Ukraine, to provide support to incoming refugees regardless of their age or ethnicity.
About 1,500 people already found accommodation at temporary shelters, organized in a hurry but by the book. More than 250 refugees, mostly women and children, remain in Cărpineni these days, with one out of four being living with the villagers at home.
"I was pleasantly surprised by how people organized in an exemplary manner; bringing food and all necessities for the refugees to feel better in our locality,” says Cărpineni mayor, Ion Cărpineanu.
Siblings Katya and Yaroslav came from Odessa. Katya, 20, is a philology student: "I did not hear anything that morning [24th of February] but my mother woke me up and said that the war had begun. That very day I had a visit scheduled to the hairdressers’ and thought I was going to get a new haircut, that everything was fine. However, I quickly understood that I had to accept what was happening.”
They decided to leave immediately and packed their bags in a hurry, “without feelings, because you had the impression that everything was happening to somebody else, that you were a movie character," Katya recounts. Their father drove them and their mother to the border crossing, after which he had to go back.
Yaroslav, Katya's 17-year-old brother, says he was horrified to go "nowhere’: "It's awful to have to leave your home and flee to another country where you have no friends and to try to rebuild your life from scratch.”
At the Palanca border crossing, they queued for 16 hours before warming up with hot tea in tents set up by volunteers.
They were helped by a volunteer to get to Chișinău, Moldova’s capital, and found out about accommodation set up for refugees in Cărpineni, a village located about 60 kilometres.
"We thought they’d put us in tents. However, we found beds, showers, heat, hot meals. A miracle. We're lucky. We are also provided with connection to Internet so that we can continue our distance learning. Everyone is trying to make us feel comfortable here,” Katya says.
The siblings hope to return home to Ukraine soon with their mother and reunite with their father. "No matter how serious the situation is, we know that Ukraine is our home," says Yaroslav.
Kostia, an ebullient 10-year-old boy who wants to become a pilot, insisted to speak on camera, with his mother Oxana’s approval:
"I did not hear any noise or explosion; my parents woke me up and told me it was the war. I didn't want to believe that. Then I went to school, heard explosions, and began to realize what was going on. We didn't want to leave Ukraine, but my father convinced us," Kostia said. "We had to leave," adds his mother, clearly touched.
They hope they will be able to return home to Odessa soon:
"We would like those close to us to be with us and for all this to end as soon as possible. Odessa is close and we want to get home soon. Your walls are your walls. We are grateful for how they have had us here, like at home.”
Kostia wants to continue his online classes, to be up to date with his homework. He is grateful for the hospitality in Cărpineni, where he has already made a first friend.
The former boarding school of Cărpineni has been reorganized to accommodate refugees with a capacity of 200 places.
Twenty-two Roma people have found refuge in the shelter.
"We left our homes and came here for fear of the war," says Kostia, holding one of his daughters in his arms.
“Everything has changed now. I was working, I had an ordinary family life and suddenly I had to leave my home," he recounts.
Kostia hopes to travel to Germany or even further away to find a well-paid job to support his five children.
"I do not know where, but we want to go further. To Europe. To get settled,” says Mariana in Romanian. "But we want to return home, where we were born and have lived all our lives. Our children want to go home.”
Mariana remembers with a heavy heart ‘the fear they were shaken with’ at seven in the morning, on 24th of February: "We started out the next day, we thought about the children, first of all about them. To evacuate, so that they don't feel this fear, too."
They came by bus and volunteers guided them to Cărpineni, where Mariana has already bonded with Silvia Feraru, the local Roma community mediator.
Silvia calls for solidarity and acceptance of all refugees, regardless of their ethnicity: “Refugees need compassion as much as the tea or food we can offer. We must treat everyone equally and help them. That's what we all need to do."
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The Cărpineni hometown association mobilized local volunteers to support efficient management of the refugee flow, collection of donations, arrangement of shelters. Part of the accommodation and food costs are covered by the Government of Switzerland, within UNDP's “Migration and local development" project.
"The Cărpineni hometown association is striving to support the refugees. We are raising funds from the locals and from the diaspora, we have a plan of action and of the pressing needs that must be covered," says the Association’s President, Vera Păpușa.
The village of Cărpineni has been a partner of the UNDP “Migration and local development” project, implemented with the financial support of the Government of Switzerland, since 2015.
