Israeli medical clowns are bringing a much-needed moment of levity and calm to Ukrainian refugees in seven shelters in Moldova.

Reut Shifman Tsoref, aka Zaza the Dream Doctor, saw a Ukrainian woman trying to lull her month-old baby to sleep in a shelter packed with other refugees.

Red nose in place, Zaza approached and looked the mother in the eye with a silent request for permission as she gently touched the baby’s little leg.

Maintaining eye contact, Zaza continued stroking the infant until the mother felt safe. They don’t speak the same language, but they didn’t need to exchange a single word.

“Slowly the mom took her hands off and let me take the baby,” Zaza tells ISRAEL21c.

“I sang him songs that my grandmother taught me. I got him to sleep and then I started massaging the mother’s leg, too, to help her relax.”

Zaza was one of four Dream Doctors accompanying a weeklong Israeli medical mission that aided more than 2,000 refugees in seven shelters in Chisinau, Moldova, and at the Moldova-Ukraine border crossing. There are now three teams on the ground.

Photo: Israeli medical clowns with Ukrainian refugee children in Moldova. Photo courtesy of Dream Doctors