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

CHAPTER I
ties”: “I live in the suburb, but there is another house where my parents used
to breed poultry during spring and summer. My brother is big now and he
studies at the university. I am alone at home, but when we go to the countryside,
we have cows and a lot of animals. I stay alone there and I have to
take care of everything, I am even doing a man’s work. I was doing everything
in the house and now I also have to cook for them and to bring them food,
because they don’t have the possibility to cook there, I have to do the laundry,
sometimes I used to take their clothes at home to wash it and it is very difficult”
(FG_C_3_rural).
BOX 10
Case Study. The life of a boy that is responsible of
drying prunes (III_C_9)
Vasile is 16, he lives with his grandmother and his mother is in the Ukraine.
He told us the following:
“I wake up…, and first of all I have to make the fire for the boiler pot to put the
prunes. We have a special technology of drying them. I put them in bags, then
we let them to swell and we send them. We have a big boiler pot of 300 litres
and after bringing water from the well I light the fire and pour around 200 litres
of water, and I need firewood for that (we buy it). I just have to wait for about
5 hours. It often happens that I put it boil at 10 pm or a little earlier, at 8 pm
and I take the prunes out at about 3 am… I boil only on Friday, Saturdays and
Sundays. For instance, I can put prunes to boil at 5.30 and let it for about 6 hours
and I have to manage to go to school.”
Was there ever a time that you did not manage to take care of the
prunes and you spoilt it, did your mother or grandmother shout at you?
“Yes, it happened once that I put it to boil at 6 pm and I had to wake up at 12 am
but I fell asleep. I was so tired and when I woke up at 6 in the morning I saw that
I burnt everything and they were upset with me.”
Did they show you they were upset only by telling you that?
“Oh, not really.”
Since when had you been boiling prunes?
“I started doing it by myself when I was 7-8 years old.”
Another new duty is to meet the demands of the parent who is at home
and who abuses alcohol: “After my mom left it became worse. I became the
elder one… My father was continuously away and when he was at home, he
was talking on the phone a lot with someone, but it was not my mom... We
found that telephone number and together with my sister decided to call… A
woman answered the phone… We told our mother about it. When he found
out what we did, he slapped me. I cried a lot. He slapped me for another
woman. I felt betrayed and alone” (III_C_19); “It is very difficult, especially
when my dad drinks and comes home beating us for no reason, it’s hard”
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