Ukrainian diaspora in Calarasi

Since February, 24th, the team of NGO Pamanteni started to help Ukrainians to escape war and find shelter in Romania. The cofounder of Black Sea Arts Festival, Karina Staicova, who has many friends in Ukraine, and art director, Marta Pogorila, who is now a refugee herself, and many others with them, took a huge part in performing this necessary but highly valuable work. Therefore, the Ukrainian Refugee Assistance Program in Calarasi started its existence.

By the date of March, 20th 2022, Association Pamanteni has achieved following results:

1. Refugees from many Ukrainian cities, such as Odesa, Mykolayv, Kherson, Kiyv, Vinnytsa, Makariv, Cherkassy, Kropivnitsky, were transferred by our association to and across the border. We are giving all kinds of assistance, while monitoring their way, in close cooperation with volunteers on the Moldova-Romania and Ukraine-Romania borders, providing transport and phone consulting. Therefore, we managed to take around 1250 people out of the war zone by now.

2. We succeeded to settle around 300 Ukrainians in our home town, Calarasi, and another 950 were settled in other Romanian towns and throughout the European Union.

3. Our association cooperates with the international Press intensively, we participate in informational struggle. We organize the safe interview with people from occupied Kherson, and from Mariupol and Mykolaiv which live under bombing to inform the world about real situation in the cities and about war crimes. By now, around 50 interviews with those were organized. Some of the editions we work with: The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, BBC, Le Monde, Play RTS.

4. We work with human rights organizations in order to help captured and abducted civilians, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. We associate psychologists and psychiatrists with people who have got the psychological traumas.

5. We receive a lot of request for humanitarian help, by the way arranged and curated the delivery of humanitarian help to Lysychansk.

6. Ukrainian refugees were involved in ecological action, held by Asociatia pentru Dezvoltare Durabila Dunarea de Joe, in order to introduce them to the locals and deeper their connection.

7. At the request of Romanian filmmakers, we are looking for a Ukrainian cameraman and sound director in the team of the Romanian television project. The show is promoting local tourism in Romania.

8. We continue to build routes for people trying to leave Ukraine for safe places and organize the logistics for medicine aid to Ukraine.

9. We provide medicine assistance and nutrition aid to the refugees, living in Calarasi.

10. We are developing social media channels for Ukrainians in Calarasi, where we post important information.

We also have many plans for the future and a great team: Karina Staicova, Natasha Staykova, Tamara Pukhliar, Svitlana Volkova, Marta Pogorila, Tatiana Lukina. Most of the team are refugees from Ukraine who moved to Romania with their young children.