The families in the suburbs of Chisinau, in Comrat, Bălți and Telenești that host Ukrainian refugees can apply for financial assistance within the Cash Assistance Program for Refugees in Moldova. In the course of April, the mechanism will be extended to cover the whole country. A press release of the UN Refugee Agency says one-time cash payments will be made available for households currently hosting at least two refugees from Ukraine. Each eligible household will receive MDL 3,500 (US$ 190), one time only. The household’s eligibility will be validated by a local community committee including the mayor, public social workers, and civil society organizations.

Contacted by IPN for details, the head of the General Social Assistance and Health Division of Chisinau Boris Gîlca said the mechanism for collecting cash assistance was for now agreed only for mayor’s offices of rural communities outside Chisinau.

“Even if the Chisinau City Hall received the largest number of applications from Ukrainian refugees and also from host families, there is no agreed methodology or legal framework. It is not yet clear how to run this mechanism to avoid double payments and not to put the families housing Ukrainians in difficulty and ask for too many confirmation documents from these households. We do not have communication on such aspects with the Government of the Republic of Moldova. Therefore, with the support of international organizations, we set up a working group to develop this mechanism and this has drafted the regulations by now. We hope we will have clarity on this framework by Monday,” stated Boris Gîlca.

The cash assistance intervention is managed by the World Food Program (WFP) and its partners – Catholic Relief Services, Helvetas, People in Need Moldova, World Vision, and Solidarités International. The program is coordinated with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection.