Building a life in Moldova: the story of Kriistina

On a sunny afternoon in a quiet town just outside Chișinău, the sound of children at play fills a small house—laughter, the click of Lego pieces, the rhythm of games unfolding. It is here, in the Moldovan countryside, that Kriistina reflects on a journey that was never meant to last this long.

“We came on March 8, 2022,” she recalls. “My husband told me, ‘Just two weeks, and we’ll go back.’ Those two weeks are still continuing.”

When the full-scale war began, Kriistina fled Ukraine’s Odesa region with her four children. She left behind everything familiar: her home, a stable managerial job at McDonald’s, and a life that felt certain. Ahead of her lay uncertainty.

“I couldn’t understand how to live,” she admits quietly. “Alone with children, in another country…”

In those first weeks, survival was all that mattered. A family acquaintance in Moldova offered temporary shelter. When that arrangement came to an end, help arrived once again—this time from a local woman who would become “Grandma Sveta” to the children.

“She gave us a place to stay for free. We only pay utilities”, Kriistina says. “We help her, and she helps us. Without her, I don’t think we could have stayed”.

That act of solidarity became the foundation for something much greater: stability, routine, and, slowly, a sense of belonging. Bit by bit, life began to take shape. Her children enrolled in school and kindergarten.

“Now we have acquaintances, friends,” she says. “We live a full life. At the beginning, we stayed only at home—we didn’t know anything, didn’t see anything. But now everything has changed.”

Financial stability remains fragile, but thanks to the support by the European Union and other donors, Kriistina receives small cash assistance that is enough to cover most of the family’s essential needs, in particular utilities, medicines, and school-related expenses. Kriistina compliments this amount through remote work and occasional small jobs.

The emotional weight of displacement, however, has never fully disappeared. She remembers the early months with a sad light on her eyes: “There were days when even cooking or cleaning felt impossible,” she says.

Even now, there is a quiet tension that comes with living between two worlds: building a future in one country while carrying memories of the home you left behind.

Yet amid the uncertainty, one thing remains clear to her: her children are safe.

“There are no sirens here,” she says. “The children don’t have to hide in basements. For their psyche, staying here was the right decision—95% the right one.”

Her children have adapted in their own ways. They have built friendships, discovered new routines, and created their own community—ordinary experiences that, in their own way, signal a return to normal life.

“Life is happening,” Kriistina says. “Even if it’s different. For me, the happiest moments are when I see my children are happy,” she says. “When they feel good. When they can just be children.”

For now, Moldova remains home.

“At the moment, we plan to stay here because we don’t know when the war will end,” she explains. “We will build a future here. The children will finish school, maybe continue their studies here. I’m thinking about where I could work.”

She pauses before adding: “But the thought of going back to Ukraine never leaves me.”

As her children move between play and curiosity in the yard, calling out to her and to each other, Kriistina’s story comes into focus. It is a story of kindness, of strength and of rebuilding a life one day at a time.

With the support of the European Union, Kristiina and her children, like many other Ukrainian refugee families, have found safety and stability far from home. Thanks to the contribution by the EU, UNHCR reached more than 20,000 vulnerable refugees in the Republic of Moldova with cash assistance. This money supports refugees in paying for their rent and household needs and other expenses, while reinvesting in the local economy. EU funding continues to contribute to UNHCR’s core objective of mitigating protection risks and meeting basic needs through cash assistance and protection counselling.