The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic offered three cars for mobile teams in Moldova that provide services to people with disabilities, but also to refugees from Ukraine.
Czech Ambassador Stanislav Kázecký noted during the handover ceremony that the cars are of Czech production and will be given to the Medical and Social Home Care Center in the Ștefan Vodă district, the SOS Autism Association and the Homecare Association.
“What happened on February 24 was an unacceptable assault on Ukraine. Ukrainian citizens who had to leave their country suffered a lot”, the ambassador said. Ukrainians are the largest ethnic minority in the Czech Republic, and this year about 300,000 more Ukrainian refugees came to the Czech Republic, including women, small children, elderly people, and they all need help, added the diplomat.
Katerina Silhankova, in charge of development and trade cooperation at the Czech Embassy, stated for IPN that the donation of the three vehicles takes place within the Project “Extending medico-social services at home for refugees from Ukraine”, for which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic granted 400,000 euros. Within the project, two other cars were bought, as well as medicines, consumables, medical first aid kits, pillows, blankets, bed linen, food products. At the same time, consultations were offered through telemedicine, several medico-social centers in Moldova were equipped with household appliances, and a mobile clinic was equipped with an ultrasonography and electrocardiograph machine. These services are offered to disadvantaged people in Moldova and to Ukrainian refugees.
The Czech Embassy has been supporting the Homecare NGO for several years now, among other similar organizations, because social activities are a priority for the Czech Embassy. “After the war in Ukraine broke out, the situation changed a lot, many refugees came, that’s why we allocated special funds not only to Ukrainian refugees, but also to other people who live in the Republic of Moldova and need help”, the Czech diplomat added.
Tamara Adașan, director of Homecare, said that, once the donated cars start being used for work with disadvantaged people and refugees from Ukraine, the number of services offered will increase, as so will the number of beneficiaries.
Mariana Haret, head of the Ștefan Vodă Health Care Center, said the donated car will help to offer faster services to the elderly, to beneficiaries with disabilities, including bedridden people, but also to refugees in Ștefan Vodă district. These people benefit from medical and social services, as well as aid in the form of food and hygiene products. According to Mariana Haret, at the moment there are more than 800 Ukrainian refugees in Stefan Vodă district, and in total, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, around 16,000 Ukrainian refugees have been helped in the district. Five placement centers for refugees operate in the district, and one of them is located in the village of Popeasca.
Aliona Dumitraș, executive director of SOS Autism, said that her organization was created in 2008 by parents raising children with autism. In 2019, the NGO was accredited as a medical center, and in 2021 – as a home care provider. At SOS Autism there is a social center where more than 60 children come every day, but there is also a mobile team that offers home care services. In March this year, after the war broke out in Ukraine, the center sheltered the family of a child with autism who took refuge in Chisinau. “Then we decided to devote an entire floor, 200 square meters, for families with disabled children. Thus, at the moment we have 27 people accommodated, including 16 children with autism who receive therapy”, said Aliona Dumitraș.
