Ukrainian Refugees Find Open Hearts and Homes in Moldova

The town of Vadul lui Voda is an eastern suburb of Chisinau, the capital of Moldova. It’s just 18 miles from the Ukraine border. When the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, Nina Turcan was in her home in Vadul lui Voda when she heard booms coming from the nearby town of Podilsk in Ukraine.

“We heard it, and then when we heard news about it on the radio, it all clicked into place,” Nina says.

Nina and her husband Adrian knew exactly what to do next.

Nina, far right, hosted several people as they figured out where to go next. When Vera and her grandson Ruslan first arrived in Moldova they stayed in a refugee center but soon found Nina who welcomed them, as she had done with some many others. 

Photo by Schimbator Studio for CRS

“What’s there to decide?” Nina asks. “We decided to help people. Help them, because where we would they go?”

Many people in Ukraine went to Moldova. In the first few weeks of the war, more than 100 000 people crossed the border and were welcomed by people like Nina and Adrian. On the evening of February 24, 2022, Nina’s family and friends drove to the border town of Palanca, Moldova.

“It’s really okay to open your doors to a stranger.”

“I think there were already a thousand cars there,” Nina says. In the following days and weeks, Nina counted the people passing by her house. “It was very hard with refugees the first two or three weeks. They were frightened and literally ran away from us when we approached to help them.”

Nina hosted several people over a period of months and supported them as they figured out where to go next. In the fall of 2022, Vera and her grandson Ruslan came to live with Nina. When they first arrived in Moldova, they stayed in a refugee center but soon found Nina who welcomed them, as she had done with so many others.

“I’m not home, but it feels like home,” Vera says. “It was so nice of them to receive me here.”

Catholic Relief Services, along with partner Caritas Moldova, has been offering shelter support to Moldovans and Ukrainian refugees since the crisis began. That support includes cash assistance, rental and utility subsidies and small repairs, and was funded by Caritas Australia, Caritas Germany, the U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and CRS private funds.

Nina received cash assistance as part of the CRS program and used it to make repairs to her bathroom.

“You should have seen it,” Nina says. “It was simply a disaster. We didn’t have the money to start this sort of renovation, but we did with your support.”

Nina and Vera have been through a lot together. Vera discovered she had cancer when she came to Moldova. Nina has helped her travel to doctor’s appointments and get proper treatment. They celebrate holidays and birthdays together, cook together, and make preserves for the winter together.

“It’s really okay to open your doors to a stranger,” Adrian says. “That’s what people call us, right? A small nation with a big heart.”

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