It is in our power to help those who are now forced to leave their homes and go to another country in search of safety. Volunteers do their best to make refugees feel comfortable. Places are being prepared for them in special accommodation centers Dacia Marin and Odiseu, which have opened at recreation centers in Vadul lui Voda.

Here refugees are met by coordinators and volunteers who accompany people 24/7: they help with resettlement, with transport for those who are in transit in Moldova, with humanitarian aid. A team of RVC volunteers donated blankets and essential hygiene products to the temporary placement centers.

A special distribution HUB of the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova is now operating in Chisinau. Volunteer Center RVC and JCC KEDEM bring evacuated refugees from Ukrainian Jewish communities here. They are escorted from the Palanka checkpoint itself, where a task force is on duty every day. Volunteers meet the refugees and help them with transport to the temporary center in Chisinau. There, refugees can rest, stay for a couple of days and then, with the help of volunteers, go in transit through Moldova to safe places.

Now it is especially important that people know that they are not alone and there is always somewhere to turn for help, advice, a kind word. Therefore, for a month now, Volunteer Center RVC volunteers have been working in emergency mode. Every day, Call Center RVC receives calls from an open hotline helping refugees from Ukrainian Jewish communities — providing all the necessary information about resettlement points in Moldova, the situation at the borders and resettlement issues.

The team also contacts the elderly wards of the Hesed Center in Ukraine, who are forced to stay in their homes, inquire about their well-being, learn about what they need now. They transmit all the information for further assistance already on the spot in their hometowns. During this time, more than 12,000 outgoing calls to Ukraine were made.

In addition, a temporary accommodation center was opened on the 4th floor of The Kishinev Jacobs Jewish Campus, where we meet everyone who arrives in the capital and is looking for temporary support and assistance.