UNHCR’s July 2026 operational update for Moldova reports that the network of refugee accommodation centres has shrunk from 56 in 2023 to 11 as of 22 July 2026. Two more are closing, and nine are expected to stay open. There are now 145,803 refugees from Ukraine in Moldova, nearly 13,000 more than a year earlier. UNHCR says many refugees have reached greater stability, while those with acute vulnerabilities still struggle to meet basic needs and to reach care and support services.
At the end of July the remaining centres accommodated 628 refugees with significant care and support needs. Twelve per cent of them are people with disabilities, alongside older people at 33 per cent and children at 30 per cent. UNHCR says many of these residents need daily help with mobility, personal care, medication management or supervision. Getting people on Temporary Protection into Moldova’s national care services will be critical for anyone with longer-term care needs, the update says.
A person with a disability doesn’t stop needing a working phone once the danger has passed. As the centres close and support moves online, the phone is what someone runs their life through — booking medical appointments, following an asylum claim, banking and looking for work. For many people with disabilities the phone is the assistive device itself: translation apps in a language they don’t speak, sight apps such as Be My Eyes, screen readers and speech-to-text. None of it works without data. We believe free credit, for use in everyday life, is what keeps someone reachable when the in-person support they relied on has gone.
Calling for Help exists to close that gap. Digital inequality leaves refugees with disabilities cut off from help that already exists, so we send free mobile top-ups every month and the person uses them to reach whoever is best placed to help — a caseworker, a clinic, a local organisation, their own family.
We believe it is the most cost-effective humanitarian aid there is. Nobody has to be employed to find them and nobody has to travel: the credit arrives on the number they already use, once they have passed AI-based identity and anti-fraud checks. The pilot has a limited number of places while we find out what it changes.
If you have a disability and are living as a refugee, or you support someone who is, apply to the pilot. To follow what we find, join the newsletter.