{"id":435667,"date":"2023-07-17T21:42:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T18:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=435667"},"modified":"2023-07-17T21:42:46","modified_gmt":"2023-07-17T18:42:46","slug":"escaping-war-but-longingly-looking-back-diaconia-mission-offers-ukrainian-refugee-mothers-a-holiday-with-their-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/escaping-war-but-longingly-looking-back-diaconia-mission-offers-ukrainian-refugee-mothers-a-holiday-with-their-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Escaping war but longingly looking back: Diaconia Mission offers Ukrainian refugee mothers a holiday with their children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout July 2023, refugee mothers from Ukraine spend a free holiday with their children in the Republic of Moldova, in a programme entitled “Bridges of Solidarity” and implemented by the Diaconia Social Mission with the financial support of Caritas Ambrosiana. Women who fled the war are torn between homesickness and fear for their future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The participants are refugees who benefit from assistance at Diaconia Social Mission\u2019s “Anastasis” Educational Centre in B\u0103l\u021bi, the Republic of Moldova, and from Ukraine\u2019s Odessa region, where Caritas Ambrosiana offers aid.<\/p>\n

“The camp is organized in Tsipova, an extraordinary place with an exceptional history and special flora and fauna. Here is the monastery where Stephen the Great is believed to have married Maria Voichi\u021ba, which we visited in the context of the saint’s feast day,” says Iraida Cazacu, coordinator of the Diaconia Social Mission’s “Saint Anne” Multifunctional Centre for Children and Families in Kishinev.<\/p>\n

“We thought we’d give mothers the opportunity to spend time with their children \u2013 besides making homework with them. The requests for participation exceed our expectations.”<\/p>\n

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Iraida Cazacu is the coordinator of Diaconia Social Mission\u2019s “St. Anne”\u2019 Multifunctional Centre for Children and Family in Kishinev. Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We want to see as many beautiful places as possible with a positive energy charge, which will make them feel good, because the war has left its mark on them,” adds Iraida Cazacu.<\/p>\n

The camp programme includes hikes, traditional crafts workshops and group therapy with a psychologist.<\/p>\n

The first two series of the camp are made up of mothers assisted by Diaconia Social Mission\u2019s “Anastasis” Educational Centre in B\u0103l\u021bi, which is at the forefront of refugee aid efforts in Moldova. The participants were accompanied by Liliana Lungu, coordinator of the centre.<\/p>\n

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Liliana Lungu, coordinator of Diaconia Social Mission\u2019s “Anastasis” Educational Centre in B\u0103l\u021bi, says the centre is at the forefront of refugee aid efforts in the Republic of Moldova. Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“We are two pedagogues accompanying them and we are happy to be here for a week,” says Liliana Lungu. “Although I am from this country and I’ve been to several other countries on the continent, I hadn’t been here, in Tsipova, before and I find it very special. Today’s hike was informative for me, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that here we walk in Stephen the Great\u2019s footsteps.”<\/p>\n

“What awaits us back home?”<\/h2>\n

Irina, a Ukrainian mother from Zhitomir, arrived at the \u201cAnastasis\u201d Centre last March. In Ukraine, she lived with her two children in a military centre, where alarms went off very often. “The scariest are the sirens, when you don’t know which way to turn,” she says. “There was a very active military group nearby, which did a lot of damage.”<\/p>\n

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Irina, from Zhitomir, wonders what the future will look like: “What awaits us back home?” Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After each bombing, the block they lived in became increasingly rickety. When the children’s school was destroyed, Irina made the decision to leave. “When you make such decisions, all you have in mind is to save your child. The rest doesn’t matter,” she explains.<\/p>\n

“We are strong and support each other here. I have hope. But the big question is what awaits us back home. I’d like to go back home, but I don’t know what I am returning to. The future is still worrying and unclear.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anxiously waiting for the husband’s message<\/h2>\n

Victoria is from Kherson, on the left bank of the Dnieper River, which was occupied in the first moments of the Russian invasion. The whole family lived in a cellar for about two months, hoping things might calm down.<\/p>\n

The husband, a former soldier, remained isolated and trapped in his own home. When he was offered to fight on the Russian side, he flatly refused. But, with the city occupied, he could not get to other areas to join the fight to defend Ukraine.<\/p>\n

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Victoria is holding her breath until a new message comes from her husband, who remained stuck in Kherson. Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One evening, Victoria\u2019s husband told her to gather her things, because the next morning someone would come and pick her up with her children. He stayed put and has been in hiding to the present.<\/p>\n

“It’s unbearable. It’s heartbreaking to experience this. I’m holding my breath for a message from my husband, more rarely maybe a call,” Victoria says. “Sometimes we can’t communicate for two or three weeks at a time. All this time I keep my eyes on the phone and, when a message comes, I give thanks to God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Victoria has a five-year-old daughter and a 17-year-old son, Mikhail. For a year, he was a regular beneficiary of the \u201cAnastasis\u201d Educational Centre in B\u0103l\u021bi, taking advantage of the support offered to study online. His efforts bore fruit when he graduated from the distance a secondary school in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

With his distance learning certificate, the young man wants to enroll for the Faculty of Psychology at the \u201cAlecu Russo\u201d University in B\u0103l\u021bi.<\/p>\n

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The “Bridges of Solidarity” camp programme for Ukrainian refugee mothers and their children is taking place at Tsipova, in the Repubic of Moldova. The first batch of participants was accommodated at the Muze Pension between July 3 and 7, 2023. Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Mikhail is a young man with initiative, he was all the time at the centre when the teachers needed help. Active, involved, responsible. He helps and supports Victoria a lot”, says Liliana Lungu.<\/p>\n

“Victoria is practically part of the \u2018Anastasis\u2019 family, she comes almost every day and we talk, participate in recreational activities or simply have a cup of tea. So I have gotten to know her story closely. The children motivate her and support her so that she can keep going. She has something to look forward to”, adds the coordinator of the \u201cAnastasis\u201d Educational Centre.<\/p>\n

“If it weren’t for them, it would all be over. They help a lot. I don’t want to rush things, but I really want all this to be over as soon as possible,” concludes Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republic of Moldova, a safe and healthy space\u201d<\/h2>\n

Olena, an employee of the “Anastasis” Educational Centre in B\u0103l\u021bi, has joined the first batch of beneficiaries at the summer camp in Tsipova. A trained psychologist, she has taken refuge in the Republic of Moldova with her two young sons. Her eldest son, a restorer of sacred art, is currently in a monastery in Ukraine, where the war has caught up with him.<\/p>\n

“Olena was looking for a job and had the necessary credentials and skills to be selected as the centre’s social pedagogue. In time, Olena became our bridge of communication with the refugee mothers from Ukraine,” explains Liliana Lungu.<\/p>\n

“Thanks to her, we were able to learn more about the situation and needs of the refugees. They need material resources, but most of all they need support, especially in the first period.”<\/p>\n

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Olena and her young sons feel safe in Moldova. “It’s a safe and healthy place,” says Olena, a psychologist by profession. Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I see among Ukrainian refugees not only neurosis, but even psychosis. That’s why I prefer to stay here, in Moldova. It’s a safe and healthy place,” says Olena.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet, the thought of returning home never leaves her and she is homesick even in these conditions, when the bombings continue back home. She knows that at home, the classes are often interrupted and everyone is running for shelter. When she heard that a missile fell near the school where she used to work, she imagined what it would be like to be there with her children. The thought gave her chills.<\/p>\n

“No mother in the world could remain indifferent to that thought. I have only two options: go back and work in the school in Kyiv where I used to work, risking death there, or stay in the Republic of Moldova.”<\/p>\n

Close to home, waiting for peace<\/h2>\n

Iraida Cazacu from Kishinev\u2019s \u201cSt. Anne\u201d Centre says there were several mothers with their children who went back home, but soon returned to the Republic of Moldova. They did it “for the peaceful sleep of their children,” she says.<\/p>\n

“I don’t have a statistic, but my estimate is that about half of the refugees who reach Moldova stop here,” says Liliana Lungu.<\/p>\n

“They don’t want to go very far from home. Those who want to go back to their homes stop here. Not all of them go far away, because they are impatiently waiting for peace to come, so they can go back to their homes.”<\/p>\n

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The “Bridges of Solidarity” camp programme for Ukrainian refugee mothers and their children is taking place at Tsipova, in the Repubic of Moldova. The first batch of participants was accommodated at the Muze Pension between July 3 and 7, 2023. Photo: Basilica.ro \/ Raluca Ene<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n