In Chernivsti a long queue of people has formed. There wasn't one a month ago, when I came here for the first time. They are waiting, silently, without complaining, patiently, to receive a bag with some food and personal hygiene products. There is a sort of embarrassment in their eyes about being guests in a new city.

Life must go on. Many other people, internally displaced, help as they can. Someone is in charge of receiving, sorting and sending humanitarian aid; there are people singing and playing in the streets; others are collecting money to support the country...

The first CUAMM doctor arrives in Chinisau. His task is to start the outpatient clinic for the first response health support for refugees at the reception center.

What is their greatest need? To get medicines, because supply chains have been interrupted, factories have been destroyed, production blocked, and transportation routes broken. This is our first undertaking as CUAMM.

Once it gets the go-ahead from the Moldovan Ministry of Health, CUAMM's action will support a reception center managed by the local diocese, with a mobile clinic to provide first response health care and lighten the burden on hospitals.

It was Wednesday, March 16 when I flew to Romania. The goal was to get as close as possible to Ukraine to see and evaluate how and where we could help.  

I remember the early days, at the start of the war, as being very tense. We all sensed that something tragic was going to happen. It wasn't only because of the media attention, it was the awareness that war was coming back to Europe, after almost 30 years.