Romanians can „adopt” Ukrainian refugee families for the Easter meal through the Facebook group „United for Ukraine” / Vlad Gheorghe: „We have a duty to help them as much as possible to feel a little joy”

Romanians are ” adopting” families of Ukrainian war refugees for whom they cook or buy Easter meals, via the Facebook group „United for Ukraine”, which currently has almost 280,000 members, announces USR MEP Vlad Gheorghe.

• „According to official data, more than 700,000 Ukrainian citizens have come to Romania since the beginning of the Russian invasion on 24 February. Although our country was mainly a transit country, more than 80,000 Ukrainians chose to stay in Romania. Romanians received them free of charge in their homes, in centers organized by local authorities, and in those organized by NGOs”, reads the press release issued by the Romanian MEP.

„I am happy to offer to prepare an Easter meal with all the traditional dishes for a refugee family in Bucharest. Space doesn’t allow me to bring them to my place, but I will bring them a day ahead everything they need where they live”, writes one of the nearly 280 000 members of the group, who has also „adopted” not one but two cases: 3 mums with 4 children and a pregnant mum with her aunt and two children.

„I offer Easter meal with traditional products for a family in the second sector, delivery the Saturday before Easter”, writes another member, who is also a volunteer in the North Railway Station and made a list of Ukrainian families in need of help.

Other members have placed orders for pastries and cakes or traditional Ukrainian products from refugees who are able to cook. „We, two mothers and three children from Ukraine, are now forced to live in Bucharest, we are welcomed by infinitely kind people and we are very grateful to all the Romanians we met on the way. We make to order Ukrainian dumplings (vareniki), gingerbread for children, made with honey and a lot of love, Easter cakes, cakes”, is the message posted on the group that generated more orders from Romanians than the Ukrainian mums could honor.

Also in support of the Ukrainians remaining in Romania, the UNITED FOR UKRAINE Fund, founded by the group of the same name, was launched. In the first phase, the Fund will collect donations from Romanians in the country and in the diaspora in order to provide Ukrainians with what they need for the Easter holidays, and after Easter, the money collected will be allocated to the daily needs of food, medicines, hygiene products, clothes, school supplies for families who have fled the war.

„For each of us the holidays are a reason for joy, we gather at the table with relatives, friends. Just think that the Ukrainians are now in a foreign country, they left with only a suitcase far from home, their families are split, they have fathers, husbands, brothers on the battlefront, and the news from home is shattering. We have a duty to help them as much as we can to feel a little joy, to have a bit of normality on holidays”, explains Vlad Gheorghe, initiator of the group UNITED FOR UKRAINE – Об’εднанi за Украiну – United for Ukraine.

All the money raised by the UNITE FOR UKRAINE Fund will go to NGOs already supporting Ukrainian citizens in Romania, as well as to families in Ukraine who apply for help in groups or in centres run by local authorities.

The remaining funds will be directed towards donations for Ukrainians living in the Republic of Moldova and across the border in Ukraine, where despite international aid there is a constant need for food, hygiene products, medicines,” reads the USR MEP’s press release.

On the group United for Ukraine – Об’εднанi за Украiну – created on February 12 by USR MEP Vlad Gheorghe from the Renew Europe group, tens of thousands of Ukrainians have found accommodation, transportation, job offers, donations of food, clothes, other products strictly necessary for those who leave behind their homes and their life savings. Every day, hundreds of requests for help from Ukrainians are answered almost instantly on the group, which has some 280 000 members.

Translated from Romanian