The Scars of the Erasure_web

Erasure_4a 10.1.11 20:29 Page 169ERASED RIGHTS, INVISIBLE DISEASES169evicted from their apartments or lost them because they could not pay the rentturned to their social networks or close relatives for help, as did Mara:I had to leave the apartment and move to Štepanjsko naselje. Then I againended up on the street, because I could not pay the rent, so the owner put a newdoor lock. I was again on the street with my child. Then my friend took us in,she lived in the town center and had a large apartment, almost 90 square meters.She gave one room to me and my son, and we lived there for almost sixmonths. I was taken ill there, very very ill. [...] In return for giving us a roofover our heads, I cooked, washed, cleaned, I was a servant in short. This friendwas so mean that she even did not let me dry my hair with a hairdryer becauseit would use too much electricity. Heating was a rarity in that apartment. Duringthat time I fell so seriously ill that I weighed only 52 kilos, I had high feverand couldn’t get up. That situation lasted one month or so. I treated it myself,using echinacea, aspirin, syrups, tablets, herbs … [...]S: Did it continue?M: Yes. Whenever I washed my hair she simply hid the hairdryer, she did notallow me to use electricity.S: So what did you do?M: Nothing. For six months I lived at her place, I was like a house maid, I dideverything … ironed everything, washed. They were four in that family, it was abig pile of clothes for ironing. They enjoyed themselves and I worked as a housemaid.(Mara, 57)Mara’s testimony highlights the third factor that explicitly influences thehealth of erased and homeless people: the response of the social networks totheir vulnerable situation. The interviews with the erased people clearly show thatthis response is related to everything – the consequences of the erasure weremore serious if the supportive environment was weak, and minimal if their socialnetworks were effective and extensive. These “examples of good practices” aremost obvious in harmonious family environments, in which only one family memberwas erased, and others in the family were ready to help with his/her accommodationand financial problems. This is evident from the experience of theerased person with the pseudonym AB, who was the only family member erased.After I was erased, my wife was employed at public works. She had 80 percentof the guaranteed minimum wage, because that is how it was paid in the past.She worked like that for five years supporting our six-member family. Four children,myself and herself. She was lucky that she knew old women who gave hervegetables from their gardens for free. (AB, 52)As will be clear from the text below, in such cases it was family memberswho also helped the erased person realize strategies for obtaining access to thehealth system (by lending their own health insurance card, paying for health