"She gave birth to me, but has never been my mother..."

(Names changed to protect identity)

Zamira lives in a village in the Fergana region in one-room that does not have running water or even a toilet. She uses a public toilet outside and fetches water for bathing from nearby river and has to boil it on a gas stove during winter.

Here is the story of a lonely girl whose childhood was disrupted at an early age.

“I was two years old when my mother left to work in Russia. I have never seen my father. I was raised by a nanny who I called grandmother, but when I turned 12, she died. That was the beginning of the worst days of my life ...”

Her story is punctuated by gross neglect and physical abuse in the hands of a largely absentee parent and evident psycho-social trauma that makes the teenage Zamira tear as she recounts.

As part of EU- UNICEF funded project, social workers have been working closely with Zamira and her mother and made efforts to dissuade Zamira’s mother from migrating without her daughter again. They have helped with formalizing a custody arrangement for Zamira, helped the girl get a passport and residence permit, and receive treatment from a neurologist.

The project has reached 204 families with 403 children (220 boys and 183 girls) left behind by one or both migrant parents. At present, 46 families with 105 children are receiving continuous support through a case management approach. Examples of assistance provided include de-institutionalization, provision of legal advice and documentation- such as receipt of birth certificates, receipt of lost documents, receipt of passport, and consultations for registration of guardianship and trusteeship, access to medical services, access to education, and financial support.

Zamira is one of those girls who benefited from project activities and received psycho-social support from social workers. She now attends sewing, cooking and hairdressing courses and works as a cleaner in neighbours’ houses. Her mother receives a disability allowance of 350,000 soum and earns 20,000 soum from selling dry fruits.

Labour migration breaks family ties, causing suffering to both parents and children. Children can experience psychological stress and behavioral changes, withdraw into themselves and experience difficulties communicating with adults and peers.

Zamira's story is an example of how separation from a mother can affect a child's psyche. It shows how children need love and care from their parents throughout their childhoods, since at this time their personalities and attitudes to the world around them are formed.

This story was written within the interregional project “Protection of children affected by migration in Southeast, South and Central Asia”, funded by the European Union and UNICEF.