Assistance to Ukrainian refugees in Romania

Since the first day of the war in Ukraine, the association ‘’Pământeni’ (Earthlings) has been engaged into TOS activity in meeting Ukrainian refugees at the border; transportation to their place of residence; resettlement in families, hostels and hotels; transit transportation.

The next task was to provide basic needs - food, clothing, hygiene and household items, telephones and cards for them, the Internet, strollers for children, beds and bedding. In total, more than a thousand refugees were assisted, near 300 of them live now in town Calarash.

 We continue to engage in employment, medical care, establishing relations with local authorities in organizing the education and leisure of children: circles, sports sections.

On March 30, 2022, a meeting of the assets of the organization ‘’Pământeni’ (Earthlings) was held, at which a decision was made to purchase a container. The association needs premises for its headquarters. Buying a container according to our calculations will save money on rent.

The headquarters is needed to centralize meetings and planning meetings, as well as to organize jobs for a lawyer (advice to refugees), PR (advertising and coverage of our activities in social networks) and, most importantly, project managers (search for euro funds for projects in the field of culture).

Ukrainian refugees working as volunteers in the association ‘’Pământeni’’ need income not only today, but they will need it for some time after the end of the war. Therefore, it was decided to start looking for European projects in the field of culture, which is the main direction of the association ‘’Pământeni’’, which is written in the statute. Projects should provide jobs for volunteers from Ukraine during their stay in Romania and their remote participation after leaving for their homeland.

At the meeting, a decision was made to pay a monetary reward to the asset of volunteers from the fund of the association ‘’Pământeni’, formed on the basis of charitable donations.

Our team members:

1. Karina Staykova (President of the Association ‘’Pământeni’)

2. Natalia Staykova (Vice-President of the Association ‘’Pământeni’)

3. Marta Pogorelaia (Art Director of the association ‘’Pământeni’, city of Kherson)

4. Svetlana Volkova (volunteer ftom Kherson)

5. Tamara Chepeleva (volunteer from Odesa)

6. Tatyana Lukina (volunteer from Odesa)

7. Natalia Chernykh (volunteer from Mykolaiv)

Pogorelaia Marta and Svetlana Volkova continue to keep close contact with volunteers from all over the world and take out refugees, monitoring them by phone. Here are three examples of their activities over the past two weeks:

1) Marta and Svetlana took part in the information resistance project of Ukraine, agreed with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. They told their story of leaving Kherson and moving to Romania. We found people from Mariupol, Sumy and Chernigov who were willing to talk about their experience. All collected materials will be formatted by them into articles, translated and distributed in different media, depending on the topic - in priority Germany, Spain France, Britain

2) On February 26, in the Kiev region, fighters of Ramzan Kadyrov captured 40 citizens of Ukraine. On March 17, Russian soldiers took all the prisoners to Belarus, to Gomel. From that moment on, Marta and Svetlana were in constant contact with the prisoners. Thanks to interaction with Belarusian activists and the Ukrainian Embassy in Minsk, those who wished to draw up documents to leave Belarus for Poland and found money for tickets. Of the 40, only six agreed to leave Belarus. The rest refused to go because they were intimidated by Russian soldiers. They were told that in Ukraine these prisoners had already been recognized as enemies of the people, and if they went to Ukraine or any other country in Europe, they would face prison terms.

But two Ukrainian families, 6 people with children, are now safe in Estonia, in Tartu. Thanks to connections in Estonia, our volunteers found good housing and psychological support for both families. They are currently arranging interviews for the six with foreign journalists.

3) Now Marta and Svetlana are looking for a solution for the family that was lucky to get out of Mariupol alive on March 20: dad, mom, 10-year-old son, a sick grandfather and a cat with a dog. Everyone is in a bad mental state. Volunteers in Poland are ready to accept them and send them to Canada for rehabilitation. But the head of the family is only 47 years old, and according to the laws of war, men under the age of 60 cannot leave Ukraine. At the moment, lawyers are connected, a psychiatrist is working with them. Our volunteers assist in the speedy execution of the necessary documents.

Natalia Staykova