Stefan Lupa?co is overwhelmed. The 73-year
old Roma from Moldova just received a food package, some winter
clothing, medicine and a load of coal. The assistance was delivered
by the Salvation Army, an implementing partner of IOM’s
Humanitarian and Social Programmes (HSP). The programme was
established in 2002 to provide assistance to Roma, Jehovah’s
Witness, homosexual and disabled victims of Nazi
persecution.

“During the last three years,”
says Lupa?co, “we only survived because of the assistance we
received. Without the coal, we would long since be dead.”

While he slowly unpacks and examines the
content of the white bag with basic foodstuffs including oil, rice
and salt, Lupa?co does not stop to shake his head. Although the
early spring sun is gently warming the air, he refuses to take off
the new blue winter jacket he has just received.

Stefan Lupa?co is one of more than 2,300
elderly and needy Roma Holocaust survivors in Moldova who has
benefited from HSP assistance since 2003.

Born in 1933, Lupa?co suffered much during the
Second World War. His fate is similar to that of many Roma during
German occupation. Both his parents were deported to a
concentration camp. Their children were left on their own and some
of Lupa?co’s siblings died of hunger. As Roma had no access
to education, Lupa?co never learned how to read and write. When
younger and able to work, he sometimes landed a job as a seasonal
worker in the local vineyards. Today, Lupa?co is sick and poor.
Both he and his wife live on a pension of US$ 8 a month.

The economic crisis in the country has hit the
Roma hardest. Unemployment among this vulnerable group is high,
family links have been loosened as younger members go abroad in
search of work while the welfare system is overstrained.

IOM’s humanitarian and social programmes
began not a moment to soon for victims of Nazism unable to help
themselves. IOM provided basic assistance, including food,
firewood, coal, hygienic supplies, but also medical aid to victims
in Moldova and in another 16 European countries.

“During the past few years we were able
to build trust among the Roma community here. This stable
partnership could be used to further improve the living conditions
of the elderly Roma and ease their final years,” says Martin
Wyss, IOM’s chief of mission in the Moldovan capital,
Chisinau.

But these hopes will most probably remain
unfulfilled. The depletion of the funds made available by the
German Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and
Future” and the US District Court for the Eastern District of
New York that is administering the distribution of the Swiss Banks
Settlement Fund meant IOM had to close its programme by the end of
March 2006. Not just in Moldova, but in the other 16 countries as
well.

Nearly 74,000 people were assisted through the
programme. But that is only half of those who needed it. At least
another 75,000 Holocaust victims haven’t been reached. The
humanitarian assistance IOM and its partners have been able to
provide to those it reached was not just a lifeline, but also the
first formal recognition of their suffering in more than 60 years.
For those that couldn’t be helped, that recognition is still
eluding them.

But for Stefan Lupa?co and the many thousands
like him, it is what is left of the future that concerns him. As we
leave, he waves us goodbye with a trembling hand. Looking
defenceless, he wonders how he and his wife will manage to survive
future winters without this assistance.