Children of the shelter home tell about their lives

Pasha’s hearing was damaged in the cold of the street

“My name is Pasha, I’m 13. I was born in the village of Uk in Irkutsk district. Father, mother, my brother and I lived in our own house. My parents drank a lot.

One day my father was shot. Mother began to drink more and got married again. Our step-father beat me and my brother. Then our home burnt down and we had to live in basements. We have even slept in woods. My mother didn’t love me, she would beat me for nothing.

We moved to another house, but it was close to collapsing. Mother didn’t want to renovate it, she used all our money for drinking. Then she took us to Krasnoyarsk where we lived in basements.

Mother forced me and my brother to beg money for vodka. My ears were aching terribly and matter was coming out. Mother didn’t take me to the doctor and that is why I now hear so poorly.

Last summer Svetlana began to feed me and my brother on the street, and in September we were taken to this home. My brother ran away, but I want to stay and to go to school. One day I want to have a house of my own.”

Birthday party on the street

“I am Sasha, I’m 14. Until May of 2000 I lived in an orphanage in the town of Astafevka, because my mother was in prison. When she was released, she took me from the orphanage.

I stayed with my mother for a couple of months, but when our house burnt down, she began to drink. I got sick of watching that and ran away.
I have an 11-year-old sister, Sveta. We came together to Krasnoyarsk. We lived in basement. I earned money by helping on the market place and by collecting bottles. Sveta begged.

It was very tough. I got to know some other homeless boys and began to smoke, sniff petrol and steal. But then my sister got a place in a Christian shelter home. Svetlana and Natasha from the shelter home came every day to feed me on the street. When I had a birthday, they brought me a cake with fourteen candles! I was so happy! Now also I live in that same shelter home and attend the sixth grade.

I am also glad that my mother has gone to an alcohol rehabilitation home.”