Excursion to Pushkin Museum in the village of Dolna

Taking advantage of good weather, before the arrival of the winter season, the Charity Centre for Refugees (CCR), in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, offered its beneficiaries a special opportunity to visit the Pushkin Museum where the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin lived intermittently during his exile period (1820-1823) in Moldova, at that time being the Besarabia region of the Russian Empire.

           

On the 17^th of November, around 70 beneficiaries joined in to discover this museum, being one of numerous cultural and historical places of interest in Moldova. As the CCR is implementing partner UNHCR under the Local Integration Project, it organizes this kind of trips in order to promote local integration by raising the awareness of its persons of concern about the history and culture of their country of asylum.

The Pushkin Museum is a place worth visiting for different reasons. First of all, the rooms of the museum exhibit different belongings of Pushkin and the family that hosted the poet, which reflect the diversity of cultural influences on Moldova, mainly related to the Turkish and Russian Empires dominance. Apart from that, the beauty and tranquility of the park around by museum are truly inspiring, just as they were two centuries ago, when Alexander Pushkin was enchanted by the Moldova’s countryside.

In the two tour visits, one for Russian and another one for Romanian speakers, made by the guide for the CCR persons of concern, the latter received many interesting information on the life style of Pushkin and its hosting family in the XIX century.

Afterwards, the group could enjoy the autumn landscape all around the museum. Both children and adults were very pleased to have fun and walk around the vast park and its garden.

Of course, this excursion was also an opportunity for recent and established refugees in Moldova to get to know each other and to enlarge their acquaintances, which is really important for the new-comers in finding support for their integration.

CCR wants to express its gratitude for the Ministry of Culture’s support in organizing this excursion and for being open and helpful in their work for the benefit of refugees and asylum seekers.

Refugees and local population united by passion for football

A couple of years ago, the Charity Centre for Refugees (CCR), as the UNHCR implementing partner, organized a football competition, within the Grant programme for Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE). The mentioned competition was very important at that time, since it was aiming at building respect of 2 local communities, Mereni and Razeni villages, towards refugees and asylum seekers who were about to move in there to social houses, refurbished under the Local Integration Programme. In order for this innovative plan to be successful, UNHCR and CCR had to prepare the field and create a more welcoming environment for the beneficiaries, thus facilitating their integration in the rural areas.

This year, another NGO – Fatima organized, through the same Grant Programme, a similar football competition, in which 4 teams of children and 3 teams of adults gladly participated. CCR team was one of them, bringing together the best football players within our group of beneficiaries.  The competition was stiff, but our team managed to take the second prize.

This kind of sport competitions will always be supported by CCR, as they are helping build a common ground for people of different ethnicities, religions, skin colors, but with the same passion for sport. We believe that sport is the most valuable common language in a multicultural environment, as it forges the team spirit of the players and allows the people to interact while enjoying themselves. 

Tolerance building in Moldovan schools

In the last months, several families with children came to Moldova in search for asylum and assistance.  When the school year started, the asylum seeking children were quickly enlisted in the nearest school to the Temporary Accommodation Centre for Asylum Seekers (TAC), which is the Galata gymnasium. Considering that this year more than 15 children of our persons of concern are studying there, including some refugee kids, the Charity Centre for Refugees (CCR) decided to renew its collaboration with the gymnasium in order to support our beneficiaries’ integration in the school activities and to raise awareness about the needs and diversity of the refugees and asylum seekers in Moldova.

Eid Al-Adha celebration at CCR

Eid al-Adha is one of the greatest celebrations for all the Muslims around the world. In Arabic Eid Al-Adha means the Feast of Sacrifice, though it is also called "Eïd el Kébir" in North Africa, "Tabaski" in West Africa, "Tafaska" for the  Berber and "Kurban Bayrami" in Turkey and some post-Soviet countries. 

Muslims around the world gathered at mosques to mark the beginning of the three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which this year began on Tuesday 15^th of October.

Excursion to Orhei Vechi/Old Orhei

Following one of its integration-related aims, consisting of raising the awareness of refugees and asylum seekers about the culture and traditions of the Republic of Moldova, the Charity centre for Refugees (CCR), as the UNHCR implementing partner of the Local Integration project, organized an excursion for its persons of concern to one of the most important historical sites: Orheiul Vechi (Old Orhei). The latter is a unique natural and historical complex in open air that combines natural landscape and archeological vestiges. It is situated between the villages Trebujeni and Butuceni 60 km North East from Chisinau, in the same location where in the XV-XVI centuries the medieval town Orhei , which means “fortification”, was situated.