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FOSTERING THE INTEGRATION OF UKRAINIAN ADULTS IN MOLDOVA THANKS TO THE KINDERGARTEN ATTENDED BY THEIR CHILDREN
“Many refugees fleeing the war wanted to find a job to better integrate in Moldova. I understood that those refugees had to find a safe place where their children could stay during the day while they were at work. This is how Baby's smile was born.”
Galina, 38, is a Ukrainian refugee who runs a kindergarten in Chisinau. She is one of the female entrepreneurs who received a small business grant from IOM in 2024, with the financial support of the U.S. Government, to support their integration in the Republic of Moldova.
After witnessing a missile strike on an apartment building across the street, Galina started a frantic escape from her hometown of Odesa with her 9-year-old daughter Arina. Their arrival in the Republic of Moldova without knowing anyone, starting from scratch, driven by the desire for a dignified life as a human being, woman, mother, and professional, were just some of the trials Galina endured while hoping for an end to the cruel and prolonged full-scale war in Ukraine. By the time they arrived in Moldova in May 2022, she and her daughter Arina were already part of the second wave of Ukrainians fleeing the war.
The Reception Centers were already full of people in need of assistance, for who had arrived in the first wave between February and March 2022. There were no apartments to rent. The only solution was to stay in a hotel. Galina and Arina met a group of Moldovans who introduced them to an American church organization and offered to pay for their stay after learning about their story.
The hospitality and generosity of the Moldovan people embraced Galina and Arina, together with the more than 1.1 million refugees from Ukraine who entered the country since 24 February 2022.
When big hearts meet, something good can only come out of it. It was during those days that Galina pondered what to do.
"We stayed in Moldova. People here have the same mentality as us. It's the right place to be in this difficult moment. But my daughter was very stressed spending her days at home, maybe because she saw that I was too. We both felt the need to integrate and socialize with the local community. Then, I sent my daughter to school, and I started volunteering."
Children enjoying the kindergarten Baby's Smile /Photo IOM/ Riccardo Severi and Olga Derejovschi
Galina worked as a volunteer for the association Salvation Army for six months, where she met other Ukrainian refugees in need of assistance, who were also eager to find a job to empower themselves and integrate into their host community.
An idea then came to her: those Ukrainian refugees who had recently arrived in Moldova needed a safe place where their children could spend the day while they worked or looked for a job.
In the capital, Chisinau, there were countless nurseries, but almost all of them were only able to receive children who spoke Romanian.
"It was time to act, and I found a niche that I could fill with a safe and comfortable place that could bring smiles back to children."
A place, a kindergarten, to be named Baby's Smile.
However, despite her intuition, Galina lacked the means to realize her plan.
She had just enough funds to rent a small space for the kindergarten but needed financial support to equip and run it. Advised by Moldovan and Ukrainian acquaintances, she attended entrepreneurship courses on developing business ideas, Moldovan legal framework and participating in grant programs. The opportunity to draft a business plan for the business she had been thinking about for a long time was about to come. Galina then learned on social media about IOM’s small business grant programme, which is financially supported by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). She applied for the programme, and her business plan was selected to receive one of the 12 awards.
The benefits of receiving financial support for the kindergarten had an immediate impact. She was able to renovate and equip her kindergarten, increase the number of children served and hire other Ukrainian refugees to help her – a qualified team consisting of an educator, a babysitter, and an English teacher. Most importantly, the children found comfort there to spend quality time and relieve their stress.
"After all, the children are happy here. Sometimes we meet them with their families at the market and they run to hug me. This also helps me a lot. I have only positive emotions at work and my depression has gone."
Galina was proud of what she was doing for Ukrainian refugees but saw a chance to make a greater difference with Baby’s smile.
"We should not only help Ukrainians, but also be useful to the local community and reciprocate their generosity. We should not only create beautiful things for ourselves, but also for Moldovans, so we can feel part of the community”.
For the holiday season, she turned the kindergarten into a summer camp and integrated Romanian language lessons into the activities. This allowed Moldovan children to attend the camp, while helping Ukrainian children to improve their Romanian skills in preparation for primary school. Her plan is fully on track. The summer camp is running well, and Galina already started to look for a larger and nicer location for the kindergarten to welcome more Ukrainian and Moldovan children, in preparation for the upcoming winter.
“I don't feel like a refugee, I am an individual trying to create something meaningful for the community."
