The Moldovan migrants who returned home for the Diaspora Days visited the Gustar Festival on August 19, where they presented their countries of destination at a small exhibition. Visitors were able to taste the food of other nations and enjoy artistic performances by the diaspora members. The countries represented at the exhibition were Italy, Portugal, Canada, Lebanon, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Russia, IPN reports.
Portugal’s stand had both food and authentic Portuguese wines. The Moldovans from Italy brought olive oils, Parmesan, Italian salami and prosciutto. Visitors also had the chance to try Canadian pancakes with maple syrup or Lebanese coffee.
Rodica Gherasim, head of the Miorita association from Portugal, said that Moldovans and Portuguese people had a lot in common, especially their hospitality. Both nations deem the friendship between peoples very important. In addition, their food preferences are occasionally similar.
The Georgian stand had on display khachapuri, wines, mineral water and traditional sweets. “We came specially for this event. Our diaspora is small, but people must know we exist. We love food and to spend our time like Moldovans, but the most important thing is the mutual respect between us as peoples”, said the representative of our diaspora in Georgia, Maria Simonishvili.
The stand of the Canadian region of Quebec was especially popular thanks to the maple syrup pancakes. “I’m really happy to be here with Canadian products and to see that they are so popular. For us, it’s a way to communicate with those who stayed home, to enlarge their horizons. Because not everyone can go to Canada, we brought a small piece of Canada here, just like we are taking with us a piece of Moldova to Canada”, said Ala Mindicanu, head of the Moldovan Community in Quebec.
The representatives of the Italian diaspora brought with them pasta, spaghetti, rice, olives, wines, orange jam and coffee, as well as souvenirs and handicrafts products.
One of the migration-focused projects being implemented in Moldova is the Migration and Rural Development Project, which aims to convince migrants to invest in local development. “In a year and a half, 25 villages managed to carry out infrastructure projects such as street lighting, buying special trucks for public services, improving the quality of these services and other projects from which 250,000 people benefited. This proves migration is no longer a problem, but an opportunity to implement projects”, said Tatiana Solonari, spokesperson of the project.
Olga Coptu, head of the Bureau for Diaspora Relations, explained that this kind of events allows our migrants to share with those at home the best things from their countries of destination. “There is also the homesickness, the desire to come back, to talk in Romanian, to communicate with their fellow migrants from other countries and to show to everyone the projects they carried out in Moldova’, said Olga Coptu.
Between 18-20 August, under the patronage of the government, the BRD organized the 4th edition of the Diaspora Days in Moldova. The event is organized every year, in the third weekend of August.