As refugees pour out of Ukraine into neighbouring countries, Mission Without Borders staff and volunteers have been ready to welcome them in Palanca, a village in Moldova at the border with Ukraine.
On the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 50 km of cars lined up at customs in Palanca, waiting for their turn to cross the border. Later, Ukrainians began using other border crossing points into Moldova, but Palanca remains the busiest, with thousands of people gathering there and greeted by Moldovan volunteers.
More than 70,000 refugees from Ukraine have entered Moldova in the last few days, the press service for the Moldovan Interior Ministry said on Sunday.
Sergiu, who works for MWB in Palanca and is also the pastor of the local church here, has been working tirelessly to help in any way he can.
Sergiu said, “So far, in these past few days, 2,000 meals have been prepared for refugees and given away at the border. The last days, around 160 people ate at the centre; some continued on their journeys, and others remained to warm themselves."
“The refugees are devastated, exhausted, cold and very scared, because they didn’t think they would have to leave their country in order not to be murdered. When you ask them where they come from and what happened, they can't control their tears."
“Thanks to the customs officers who allowed us to cross customs, we were able to feed even more people. We worked with the volunteers until 2 am on Saturday. We also prepared 1,000 servings of food and fed the refugees on Sunday and I was pleasantly surprised to see a couple of sponsored children, Maxim and Sandu, ready to help. They were at the Palanca customs, serving the volunteers with hot drinks.”
At the moment, some of the refugees are in MWB’s community centre in Palanca, and others have already been placed with families.