On the night of 24th February, the village I grew up in Moldova called Inesti, was awaken by the sound of Russian bombing of our neighboring Ukraine. Hours later, Moldova was overwhelmed by a huge number of refugees fleeing to safety. Moldova is one of the smallest and the poorest country in Europe with the highest numbers of refugees per capita. At this moment the country is struggling to cope with all refugees in need. Most centers have already been filled and local people back home are hosting refugees in their homes. Some run out of space and are turning their garages and cellars into bedrooms.
A family my parents recently helped is 34-year-old Anna with her eight and eleven-year-old children who walked for over 200km to get to the Moldovan border. I cannot imagine walking in temperature as low as -7C, full of fear, confusion, and uncertainty of what the future might hold. They say that they do not want to go further to Europe so that they can be closer to their husband and father who stayed behind to fight in the war. The nearest border crossing with Ukraine from my village is 135km away. Coincidentally, this is very similar distance to my daily work commute. I intend to walk from Rolls-Royce site in my hometown Bristol to Rolls-Royce, Solihull where I work. I will cover a distance of 134km which is approximately three marathons in three days to fundraise an ambitious 12K. These funds will be used to renovate a building in Moldova to host Ukrainian refugees with disabilities. I plan on leaving Rolls-Royce, Bristol site on Friday morning 25th March at 9am and hoping to make it to work on Monday morning.
The building (shown at the back of the profile picture) is a hospital on the first floor and empty on the second floor which is the floor we have permission to use. Currently, it is owned by the local council, and we secured a legal agreement to use it for at least a minimum of 2 years solely for Ukrainian refugees. After this period, if there is no need to host refugees then the place will be used as a care home for the elderly. The building has 13 rooms and can host up to 48 people. The repairs needed are the following.
1) Beds and hobs – secured from local donations
2) 5 Doors – 36,278 lei
3) Walls – 124,273 lei
4) Floor – 52,031
5) Ceiling work – 38,757 lei
6) Electricity – 8,802 lei
7) Water – 10,752 lei
Total: 270,893 lei ~£12K
It is estimated that will take about 3 weeks to complete the work. I have attached a few a video showing the condition of a typical room in its current state. To ensure transparency of how the money will be spent, I formed a committee consisting of two work colleagues and another Moldovan person residing in the UK. We will review the investment together with this committee and will post videos and a detailed report once the work will be finished. Please note that this is a big challenge for me, and I am unsure if we can raise the budget set. If we don’t raise all of it then we will repair fewer rooms but still go ahead with the project and do as much as we can. On the other hand, if we raise more than our target then we will quickly find similar projects as there is plenty of things we can do in this crisis. I thank you in advance for your kind generosity and if you would like to find out more than please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Video showing the state of a typical room.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7QJUUMFbYwg?feature=share