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Madalina Turza, senior adviser and strategic coordinator of humanitarian assistance within the Department for Community Social Responsibility and Vulnerable Groups, on Friday gave a presentation of the support provided by Romania to Ukrainian refugees one year after the start of the war, saying that over 2.5 million Ukrainian citizens received some form of support or direct support, being allocated over 600 million euros both from the national budget and from international partners, told Agerpres.
"I want to emphasise two dimensions of Romania's involvement in this assistance and humanitarian support effort and I would try to summarise the first dimension in three words: coordination, leadership and teamwork. Under the umbrella of these three concepts, each of which you know - because I look at you and I can tell in what way you have been involved - I will give you some figures from behind this joint effort, and here we are talking about the establishment, existence, operation and involvement of six working groups with the national government of Romania in the areas of education, housing, healthcare, labour, children and vulnerable people, all of which practically drew the public policies in the field of the protection of refugees from Ukraine," Turza told the event "Romania - One year of solidarity with Ukraine," organised by the Romanian government jointly with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Agencies in Romania.
Turza said that the Romanian government developed, amended and supplemented more than 25 pieces of legislation to ensure the accommodation in Romania of all the incoming citizens of Ukraine.
"Also, it is important to know that for the refugees from Ukraine, both the Romanian government and our international partners and civil society carried out more than 150 types of activities in their support, including counselling, guidance, healthcare assistance, and education. It is very important that more than 300 non-governmental organisations so far from the first day of the war came to support the refugees from Ukraine and help with the efforts of local and central public administrations. As many as 1,500 local administrations - mayor's offices, county councils - have been involved in various forms of assistance to the refugees from Ukraine from the beginning of the conflict," added Turza.
She also said that over 2.5 million Ukrainian citizens received some form of support or direct support either from the Romanian Government or from partners.
"In all, more than 600 million euros were allocated for these forces to produce some results both from the national budget and from international partners," Turza said.
She added that all activities were carried out "under the umbrella of the notion of care" for vulnerable people from Ukraine and recalled that more than 4,000 border police officers manage to bring the refugees into Romania.
"We wanted to make sure that they are safe, and when I say safe I mean actually their safety against various types of crime that has manifested itself in a type of work that is less visible but that is carried out by our law enforcement officers. We need to know that over 4,000 border police officers manage to introduce the refugees into Romania. There are over 7,000 vehicles checked to make sure that they are in no danger. Also, over 1,200 of the homes rented by refugees from Ukraine are checked by the police each day," said Turza.
She also mentioned a 50/20 programme under which Ukrainian refugees were provided with a roof over their heads, including during the winter.
"There are tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens having got well in Romanian hospitals, there are over 20,000 children enrolled with the Primero system and we know what their needs are and how we can help them or with support from our partners. There are over 1,000 elderly Ukrainian people in the public social work networks of Romania and certainly also in private networks. All this is the picture of a national response conducted not only with professionalism by our colleagues and friends and partners and mine, but also with a soul," said Turza.
