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Colm's avatar

Well done to you and the army of volunteers. Moldova is uniquely placed to cover the many needs of these highly deserving and vulnerable refugees and I am aware of families helping. Here in Romania, sadly, the story is not as different as you might think. Even here, the response is hugely resting on the shoulders of individual families and kind hearted groups like yours and those you describe. Bizarrely Moldovans here (in Romania) are run ragged in assistance give their ability to translate between the languages. We all know that the wheels of governments move slowly but surely there can be exceptions? I am seeing the strains on some families already and this will become a secondary crisis if the government aid does not kick in soon. Keep up the good work and you are correct to highlight the situation.

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Chad's avatar

It's interesting you mention the resources that have been sent to Poland. I just spent almost a week at the Polish border (and have been involved in Warsaw for weeks now) and yet I have the same feeling you do. Yes, there are international organizations here. I see the logos of organizations such as PAH, the Polish Red Cross, Caritas, etc, but on the ground I still feel a complete lack of leadership and coordination.

From what I have seen, beyond the initial efforts of large international organizations directly on the border, most in-land assistance is as often as not just a self-organized citizen effort like Smokehouse run with modest involvement of the local government (typically the city or regional government). Dedicated, passionate (yet untrained) volunteers are largely responsible for helping to find housing, transportation, food, and communication assistance. We keep records, but they are our own and we have no instructions or requests to send them anywhere. Therefore, if we find housing or transportation for a family, we know where they went but no one else does. This echoes your concern of having no idea of where the refugees are staying.

A month in and we're still left doing the best we can and hoping the next person we send them to has more information. I've seen heroic efforts by individuals, churches, companies, and small civil organizations, but it's getting frustrating at this point. I'm not saying the situation here in Poland is worse than in Moldova, I'm simply saying that I share similar concerns. Where is the cavalry indeed.

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