UNHCR provides winter support to refugees and Moldovans

The war in Ukraine uprooted them from their Odesa home almost ten months ago, and forced them to seek safety in Moldova, where they still live.  Lena’s husband suffers from a physical disability and their two teenage children are in school: their daughter studies at a Moldovan school, while their older son attends Ukrainian classes online.  

Lena explains how the winter season has brought new challenges for the family. “High prices for food, electricity and gas make it harder to put fruits and vegetables on the table,” she explains.  “It is more difficult now compared to spring or summer.”  

The family receives cash assistance from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, which they use to buy medicine for Lena’s husband, clothes for the children, and food.  

“Cash assistance is essential, but unfortunately it’s not always enough, so we prioritize the most important things”, Lena says. 

Moldova’s Refugee Coordination Forum (RCF), co-led by the Government and UNHCR, put together an interagency winterization plan in September to help around 90 thousand refugees and an equal number of vulnerable Moldovans this winter.  The plan is designed to complement the Government’s own winterization strategy, with programming that began in November and will continue through March of 2023. In addition to helping to coordinate the plan, UNHCR helps implement four parts of the plan: 

• Distribution of winter items like blankets, warm clothes, bed linen, hygiene kits, kitchen utensils and other articles to vulnerable refugees and Moldovans. Over 65k non-food items have been distributed so far. 
• Improvement of refugee accommodation centres (RACs) through installation of boilers, heaters, insulated doors/windows, lockers, beds, toilets, showers, kitchens, common spaces, water filters, WiFi points and household appliances. So far, UNHCR and partners have improved 93 RACs since the war began, including winter repairs for 27 of them. 
• Support to households with winter-related expenses through additional cash support in line with the Government’s winter support programme (‘APRA’).  UNHCR is providing additional winter multipurpose cash assistance from November through March 2023. So far, over 29k households have benefitted from two rounds of monthly cash support (November and December). 

• Assistance to the Government for distribution of firewood – UNHCR and UNICEF are helping the Government transport firewood from Romania to Moldova in November and December – over USD 1.3M in total (including USD 300k from UNICEF) has been contributed to distribute firewood to an estimated 43.4k Moldovan households and 9.9k refugee households. 

Lena found out about the winter item distributions from friends who are also refugees. 

“At the Charity Centre for Refugees, we received pillows, blankets, kitchen supplies, and a family hygiene kit,” she recalls.  “Now we can save money for food, instead of spending it on those things; we have money for fruits, vegetables and dairy products.” 

The work of UNHCR in the Republic of Moldova is made possible with support from international donors who support the operation specifically, as well as those who contribute broadly earmarked and unearmarked funds that benefit its global programmes. Top donors to the UNHCR response in Moldova include:  

Australia for UNHCR | Canada | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | European Union | Finland Greece | Iceland | Ireland | Italy l Japan | Liechtenstein | Malta | MSC Foundation | Poland Republic of Korea | Switzerland | Sweden | United States of America | UPS Corporate | USA for UNHCR as well as other private sector donors.