specific needs of children and elderly left behind as a ... - IOM Moldova

CHAPTER I
from your apartment to ours.” I opened the door and I saw two huge lads. I
say: “There’s no water trickling in here.” They say: ”We know that there are
renters who live here.” I say: “Well, try to find them.” They gazed at the old
man who was reading something and they left. I have no idea who they were”
(III_E_21). There are cases when the employees of various institutions are
taking advantage of the elderly, especially helpless persons left behind: “I
used to give five lei to the person who was bringing me my pension... the
next time she came to me at 9 pm… She gave me the money and she left, but
when I started counting, I saw that 150 lei were missing. I was scared then...”
(III_E_22).
There are various means of cheating the elderly and in most cases the offenders
are familiar with their victim’s situation and they are taking advantage
of his/her credulity and feelings: “…there was someone who called
me and told me that my Ana (daughter) is in Ungheni and she’s in jail and
that I have to buy a 200 lei telephone card to talk to her. When I heard about
that (her daughter has been missing since 1997), I could not even think that
somebody would want to trick me. I managed to find 200 lei and I bought
those minutes to be able to talk to her but that was it. They robbed me of 200
lei. Moreover, it was somebody who knew about my condition… How can
someone do such a thing?” (III_E_18). In some cases the offenders do not
stop but they continue with threats of physical punishment: “there is this
man who is my neighbour and he took my firewood, my chicken…, he came
at night to threaten me, saying that he will hit me with the spit, that’s the
same man who stole my corn… Then the police summoned him to the city
hall and he signed a paper saying that he was not going to do anything to
me...” (III_E_6).
Issues regarding deprivation of real estate continue to be extremely frequent
for the elderly: “neighbours and various institutions are trying to deceive
these old people through various means and are taking away their houses.
There are various cases. This problem is frequent and if they get to medical
institutions they are deceived there too, especially those who suffer from alcohol
abuse, these ones are left outside with no place to go” (FG_EE_urban).
There are even a lot of cases when the elderly are deprived of various goods
by their own children: “in order to go abroad they usually need a big sum of
money and that’s when elderly people decide to sell their dwelling to solve the
problem and to help their children leave, while they are then being placed in
medical-social institutions called “Nursing Homes for the Elderly” (FG_EE_
urban); “his children left him, his daughter is in Moscow, she sold her house.
After his wife died, she came back and took him to the notary, fooled him and
sold his house too. He has no place to live now...” (FG_E_4_rural_asylum).
The institutionalized elderly whose children are abroad have a specific approach
to the situation they face. This fact can be seen in the way they per-
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