A big thank you from the Ukrainian/Romanian Border

Dear Friends

I would like to thank each and every one of you who contributed to my fundraising campaign on Justgiving.com

We started taking refugees from Ukraine on the 25th February, a day after the invasion started. The location of our holiday resort business I set up after leaving Worth in 2017 is the epicentre of one of the Ukrainian refugee crossings into Romania, 10kms from the ferry border point of Isaccea. The closest Ukranian town to us is Izmail, only around 10kms in a straight line. On a clear day it’s visible from our kitchen window, and in fact it’s so close that we could hear some explosions at the beginning of the conflict when the Russians attacked a radar installation there.

What started as a trickle of refugees escalated, and at one point we had 3,000 people arriving each day. The weather was unusually cold with freezing temperatures, which made things even worse. Now the flow of refugees is reduced to around 1,000 people a day due to the fact that the Russians have not advanced as they had hoped. There are now over 3.5 million refugees who have left Ukraine, and another 6.5 million internally displaced.  Most are young families, just women and children, without the father who may have stayed behind to fight. They all have different needs but are all disorientated, exhausted, hungry, cold and frightened about the future.

We collected refugees from the border point, and took them to centres across the country, where they received food, clothes and accommodation.There was help available to meet all their needs, and nobody was left out in the cold, or left hungry as everyone is fed here! We helped organise their transport, documents, medical needs, and unfortunately even a funeral as one evening I transported a group of women to a location in Cataloi and an elderly lady of 85 in a wheelchair, in a precarious state of health, unfortunately passed away 2 days later. We have transformed one of our holiday flats into a free shop with clothes, shoes, nappies and personal hygiene products, and have even cared for some Ukrainian pets!

So far we have received no help whatsoever from the Romanian Government. We have paid for most things, and have received small donations in money, food, clothes and medicines. We know that in the town of Izmail there are thousands of refugees who lack food, clothing and medicines. By early next week we are hoping that with the money you have so generously donated we will be able to buy what we need and send the first transport to Izmail - we will keep you informed.

I would like to thank everyone again, on behalf of all the Ukrainian people, for your involvement. We greatly appreciate your support. Any help really makes a huge difference to these people.

Catalin Constantin

Former Worth Farm Manager