Tatiana overcomes the crisis
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© UNICEF, 2006/Alena Svirid |
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Photos: Tatyana and her daughter |
Nastya is two years old. She is a very active and lively child who already knows many words, she smiles and laughs a lot and loves being photographed. Her mother, Tatiana, adores her and says that Nastya is the greatest joy of her life and means everything to her.
However, it was a very different story two years ago when her husband died. Tatiana had to sell her apartment in Lithuania and came to Kostroma in Russia. She found work at a market but failed to gain Russian citizenship or a residence permit and soon lost her job. Tatiana was in despair as she could no longer return to Lithuania. Being pregnant made her life even more difficult. Finally, and just in time, Tatiana approached the Kostroma Regional Centre for Social Support for Family and Children when she was into the last month of her pregnancy.
“I was deeply depressed and didn’t know where to seek help. I had no money. I didn’t know whether I was entitled to receive medical assistance during childbirth.” She said.
Her situation is familiar to many women who don’t know where they could seek help. They are not aware of their rights and are often desperate and alone. Some even abandon their newborns thinking that institutionalized care would be better for their child. However, thanks to the help provided by the Kostroma Regional Centre for Social Support for Family and Children (operating in partnership with UNICEF), Tatiana managed to overcome the crisis.
At the Centre, Tatiana received psychological support and she was issued food coupons. The Centre’s lawyers helped her appeal to the local passport and visa authorities for temporary registration in Kostroma. The Centre’s personnel also contacted municipal health care organizations so that Tatiana could receive medical assistance during her pregnancy and childbirth.
“Thanks to the help of these amazing people I became confident of my abilities. When Nastya was born, I was assisted in buying everything a baby would need, such as a bed, a baby-carriage, and lots of other necessary things”, says Tatiana.
Even though Tatiana’s documents were not yet ready, Tatiana managed to receive state-paid maternity and child benefit with the help of the Centre’s lawyers. Now she has a permit to live in Kostroma. She has found a job and rents an apartment, and her daughter attends a kindergarten.
“When people from the Centre came to the maternity hospital to greet me and my new daughter, I suddenly realized that I was not alone. For me and my daughter, they became a real family. I don’t even want to think what could have become of us without their help,” says Tatiana.
By Elena Kharitonova
UNICEF supports the Kostroma Regional Centre for Social Support to Family and Children and other Kostroma regional projects aimed at early intervention, family re-integration, prevention of institualization and alternative family placement of children without parental care.
