AN: - Please tell us about how you are working to help refugees in Ukraine. AM: I'll start at the beginning, as they say. On 24 February, around 10 am, I started to receive calls from the press, asking me to inform them about the situation at the Isaccea border crossing point. Initially, until around 7 p.m., the flow of people entering Romania was normal, but after that, the number of people crossing the border to us to flee the war began to increase exponentially. From that moment on, we started preparing by mobilising the town hall staff to receive the refugees. In the first couple of days more people who were in cars passed through, but then about 700 people per ferry run and about 3,000 people per day. Immediately, our partners from the ISU ”Delta” came with tents, the ”Red Cross” representatives arrived and then the non-governmental organisations, the volunteers who did a great job, without them I don't think we would have managed. The first volunteers who came were Russian-English translators, who had been through this kind of experience before, and they taught us what to do. AN: - With which institutions and organisations do you coordinate your efforts? How have people in the community reacted to the needs of refugees from Ukraine? AM: As the municipality, we provided all the material and financial resources. I have to admit that for the first two weeks since the beginning of the war, except for electricity and water and sewage at the customs point, all the expenses for the refugees were taken care of by us, i.e. food, food preparation, hygiene products. The biggest expense was the transport of refugees, until the OUG came out which stipulates that the transport of refugees is paid by the county councils. Admittedly, we also had help from some companies. We provided accommodation for the refugees in the school sports hall. A major problem was, at a certain point, the management of aid: a huge amount of aid came to us and we provided all the appropriate facilities: the kindergarten, the synthetic sports fields and we also called on companies to help us with storage facilities. Then we started sending the aid and I remember the first two lorries left for Kiev, which was under siege at that time. In the first two weeks, the whole community of Isaccea was extremely busy with the flood of refugees. We were at the border crossing 24 hours a day with our fellow citizens. Some of them helped and are still helping at the humanitarian hub, preparing food, welcoming the refugees in their homes. Everything that has been done for the refugees was a team effort, joined by the most committed people from our community and beyond: ISU ”Delta”, ”Red Cross”, NGOs, community volunteers. We also coordinated our efforts with the Consulate of Turkey in Constanta, which came and took in about 1000 Turkish, Moroccan and Turkmen students refugees from Ukraine, with NGOs that took people directly from the border crossing point and took them where they needed: to Constanta, to Bucharest..., helped them to sort out their travel documents. At the moment, we still have 70 people in Isaccea, for whom we also provide meals, but we also have a spare room of 30 places for people arriving overnight. This space has been provided by the Baptist Church. We also run a humanitarian hub from where we send aid all over Ukraine. We have sent aid to Kiev, Nikolaev, Odessa, Ismail, Reni, Mariupol. We work very closely with the Military Administration in Odessa to send humanitarian aid. We also have to take into account the fact that many people have taken refuge in Ukraine near the border with Romania who, depending on how the war develops, may cross into Romania, and we have to be ready. All these people need aid, food and basic necessities. In Ukraine, it was very difficult at the beginning: the lorries loading aid had no fuel to return to Ukraine - we had to refuel them. Another time, 5 lorries came from the Odessa Emergency Department, they loaded humanitarian aid, but we had to pay them the ferry fee so they could return. It was 1 am... Yes, we had huge expenses at the city hall level, but I have to recognise that civil society is doing its job in spades. AN: Do you think your experience of cooperation with organisations in Ukraine has made a difference? Have you kept in touch with partners in Ukraine? How do you see the continuation of the projects you are implementing? AM: I fought very hard for this border crossing point, that's why we have been in contact a lot with our partners in Ukraine, Orlivka, Ismail, Reni... and the cross-border projects we have in place have been very much desired, because they are complementary to our pet project: the Isaccea-Orlivka border crossing point. We also have a special link with the Odessa Military Administration. The partnerships that we have built in cross-border projects are very close, we communicate a lot and we are all confident that we will be able to successfully finalise our projects. I think this war has brought us closer to each other, we have got to know each other better. We are very much looking forward to the end of the war so that we can see each other. We know that the partners in Ukraine are doing those activities that they can do now, given the circumstances and the restrictions on payments, and we in Romania are still working, we are finalising the technical design and we hope that by 15 May we will be able to tender the works of the CBConnect Trans project. The future sounds excellent for our partnership and we will certainly submit beautiful projects on the next Romania-Ukraine cross-border programme. We can't wait! AN: - Do you have a message for the Ukrainian partners? AM: May the war end and may those who started it lose it! I wish our partners to return home and have the strength to rebuild all that has been destroyed! AN: - When we made the film of the programme Romania - Ukraine - Republic of Moldova 2007 -2013, your partner from Ismail Local Council, Mr Valentin Stroia, ended his intervention with the following words: ”For me, it is fortunate to have been born on the border!” What is it like for you? AM: I am very happy to have succeeded in opening this border crossing point Isaccea- Orlivka, which, as many refugees say, for them was a gift from God. Personally, I agree with what Valentin said: for me, it's a happiness to have been born on the border!