Russia - Cheated of Childhood
December 2003 2246
COMMENTATOR (COMM): The economic and social turmoil that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union has resulted in untold numbers of personal tragedies. While the end of communist rule has led to many positive political and economic changes in people's lives, it's also led to family breakdown, growing poverty and an increase in alcoholism... One of the saddest social indicators is the number of children now forced to live and work on Russian streets. It's a totally new phenomenon. Today estimates show there are one million homeless children throughout Russia. In St Petersburg alone there are 16,000 street children. It's a situation Russian President Vladimir Putin has summed up as the 'most threatening of his country's economic and social indicators'.
VERA SMIRNOVA, Project Manager, 'Protection of Children' The whole system was destroyed and the system of values was destroyed as well many people simply don't believe in their future. They don't have any ideals, because they don't believe in the ideals that existed in the former Soviet Union, and the new ideals haven't been invented for them. Relations between people are destroyed and parents don't take care of their children.
COMM: Max is 13 and Yuriy eleven. They live in the eastern suburbs of St Petersburg. They sleep in the attic at the top of this eight-story housing block. In the winter, they sleep in the basement.
MAX: How much money have you got?
YURIY: Ten kopeks.
MAX: Is that it?
YURIY: Yes.
MAX: I have a rouble - rouble fifty.
This is our cushion. We sleep on it. We use it instead of a pillow. When it is, warm we use our jackets as a pillow - while the cats sleep on this one. This is our typical food for the day. We eat macaroni, dry pasta. We don't eat hot food, because we have nowhere to cook it. This is our hiding place. We hide all the most important things here, but they always go missing. This is our bed. We only got it today because the previous blanket here was... well... Someone privatized it. Well, it was swiped (nicked). And these are our kittens. We took them away, because one woman wanted to drown them, and we felt sorry for them and took them to live with us. They live here. We feed them - when we have food, obviously. This cat is mine, by the way. I have a female cat, and he...
YURIY: I have a Tom cat. My cat. My kitten.
COMM: Max and Yuriy have been living here for the last eight months. They ran away from home for different reasons - Yuriy was being beaten by his alcoholic stepfather, and Max had no parental support - his mother is dead and his father was never at home. They've both abandoned school and neither of them want to return home or to move to the government shelters which have been offered to them. They met on the streets when they were begging.
YURIY: It's me who has to protect him -
MAX: Yes, usually he protects me. But it sort of depends. Sometimes I feel sorry for him - especially when his mum tried to take him home the other day, and he started crying and tried to run away. And then I felt sorry for him - he only just escaped.
YURIY: It all starts with little things - my stepfather gets drunk and starts beating me up for things like I haven't thrown the rubbish away or done the dishes - just for little things... Three months ago my mother met me, and I told her that I am not coming back home. - she tried to frighten me by saying that she would tell the police... I told her - either live with me, or the stepfather. But she didn't care enough and walked away. Sometimes I cry when I think about my mum.
COMML Most street children in St.Petersburg hang around the Metro stations to beg from passing pedestrians. But these are some of the most dangerous places in the city - and a magnet for criminals.
MAX: We come here every morning, day or night. We come here to these kiosks and we start begging. Sometimes we get ask for change and sometimes we ask for food.
YURIY: Sometimes we have to collect empty bottles, whenever we can find them. And then we sell them. That's how we get our money. From six or seven in the afternoon we try to get money for the computer games. We get back from the computer club at about eight in the morning, and sleep until late - five or six in the afternoon.
COMM: Computer clubs have sprung up throughout Russia. Frequented by young boys and teenagers, they stay open all night - a haven for paedophiles. And yet sometimes Yuriy and Max feel safer staying here at night rather than going to sleep in their attic whilst it's still dark - there they've already been threatened by men several times.
MAX: For me, the most dangerous thing about living on the street - in attics and cellars - is paedophiles. That's the most dangerous thing... I know lots of people, who have been - how do you put this? - abused.
YURIY: If someone I don't know approaches me, it is really scary - that's the most frightening thing. Like that man with a knife last night - he was really dangerous. I was petrified - we had to run away from him to lose him.
MAX: To tell you the truth, I know people who are working as prostitutes to find money for themselves and their families. For instance Masha, her mother drinks. She hasn't got a father. And she has a small brother to take care of.
COMM: In the last few years the St.Petersburg authorities have set up a force of special, child-friendly police to help - and protect - the growing number of children who live on the streets.
YURIY: We have... I personally know three good policemen. I can't stand the rest of them.
MAX: We run away from them, of course, and try to hide from them. Because if they pick us up, they take us to the police's young offenders unit. And then the pile of papers grows and grows and grows... And then - oops - right, boy, it's your turn! And then it's...
YURIY: ...Special School (school for difficult children)
MAX: ...reform school, shelters, orphanage...And then possibly prison - depending on how old you are and what you've done...
COMM: New teams of social workers have also been introduced - but they are very few and like the police - they're not always trusted by the children they are supposed to be helping. The solutions they offer like state shelters are not often appreciated.
MAX: There are lots of social workers and people who pretend to be social workers. I don't trust them. Some of them can work for a rapist, or maniacs... Even if they are good people, what can the social workers offer anyway? - special school shelter? or a flat where you can live temporarily with a family? - but it's also dangerous, and we are afraid to go there.
NATALIYA EVDOKIMOVA, Head of Committee of Social Affairs, Legislative Assembly, St Petersburg: Our children's homes are out-dated - big, prison like institutions that house 150 to 200 people... The children live in huge rooms like army barracks, and there is no personal attention to anyone. Children of course run away from this life - partly because of the violent behaviour of other children, the older children, or the supervisors.
COMM: Vera Smirnova works for the NGO 'The Protection of Children', (a partner in the ILO's programme for working street children). She and her social work colleagues visit the children on the streets several times a week to offer their help.
VERA SMIRNOVA, Project Manager, 'Protection of Children' Social work - in the modern meaning - has never existed in the Soviet Union, and that's why our methods of work and our approaches had to be changed - I think we need more social workers now. Sometimes we have to visit these children several times - many times - because many of them don't feel they can rely on adults. And we need to have many contacts with them before they start to believe us. There are about thirty different kinds of job children are doing - children usually start collecting bottles or begging when they come to the street but very soon they are getting involved in criminal activities - involved in prostitution - they start using drugs, drinking, smoking.
COMM: Many children turn to glue sniffing as a way of coping. They say it also helps to reduce hunger. But prolonged use of glue can cause brain damage, and affects both their emotions and intellect.
GIRLS: You become funny, you hallucinate... First of all, you feel weak - and then the other way round - you feel good!
You can do whatever you like - hallucinate, Like you think of something you want and then it feels as if you've got it
COMM: Sometimes we have to visit these children several times - many times - because many of them don't feel they can rely on adults. And we need to have many contacts with them before they start to believe us. There are about thirty different kinds of job children are doing - children usually start collecting bottles or begging when they come to the street but very soon they are getting involved in criminal activities - involved in prostitution - they start using drugs, drinking, smoking. This drop-in centre run by Médecins du Monde offers girls and boys who live on the street medical, social, and psychological support. The number of diseases contracted by children is escalating.
LENA CHERKASSOVA, Paediatrician, Médecins du Monde: We have to deal with a high number of burns and injuries - several illnesses connected to the drug addiction: hepatitis C, hepatitis B and then there's HIV/AIDS. We get many girls coming to our centre who are involved in the sex business who make money for drugs and for their needs by selling sex. The blood tests results in 2001 showed that every tenth child whose blood was tested was HIV positive -and don't forget we are talking about children aged between 14 and 18.
COMM:: Dima has been living on the streets for the last four years. He frequently runs away from state shelters, he's been ill several times and visits this centre when he needs help. His parents like many others in St Petersburg sold their city centre apartment to opportunists - leaving the entire family homeless - they were alcoholics and beat him. Misha, the Centre psychologist uses tests to gauge how Dima is coping.
MICHAEL NIKITIN, Psychiatrist, Médecins du Monde: He has a lot of mental problems - he has a lot of bad experience - beating and some sexual exploitation, because he met some adults - for example some men who exploited him. He has spent a lot of time on the streets - he can't stay into shelters more than five days because he is very active, very aggressive person. I think he will be a criminal. In two or three years he will be sent to the prison or to the hospital with some disease - I think there is no other way...
COMM:: When Dima isn't staying with some men he met on the street, he lives here, in this derelict car.
ALEXEI BOUKHAROV, IPEC National Programme Manager Russia should think about its children - those children can still become normal citizens, can become mothers, can become soldiers, can become workers who will work for the prosperity of Russia... And if we do not support them now, they will become street people - useless people who will be a burden to the state. Now we have got only one generation of street children who are in the age bracket of lets say 7 to 18 right and most of them will grow up and have their own children and this will create street people.
COMM: Street children miss out on their education - Svetlana though is one of the lucky ones - she's back at school and has a future, she is safe and has been reunited with her family - it wasn't long ago that she, too, was on the streets looking for food when her mother (beaten by her alcoholic husband) became too ill to care for her.
SVETLANA(Translation): When mum didn't have any bread, we went to collect bottles. We decided... well, the baby didn't have any milk - we were deciding what to do. So we went to collect bottles so we could get bread.
COMM: Street social workers rescued Svetlana and the family has been enrolled into a year long programme which supports them until her mother Natasha can get back on her feet. Every week they meet up with other families who have faced similar problems.
SVETLANA (Translation): These classes are really useful and interesting for us - we learn lots of new things - we have to talk about our experiences and now were like one big happy family...
ALEXEI BOUKHAROV, IPEC National Programme Manager: We've got two major aims. First of all, to sensitize the public at large - and the politicians - on the issue of child labour. And the second aim is to help working street children directly... The main barrier we are facing is a lack of understanding. This issue is still underestimated - the issue of street children is underestimated... It is underestimated how grave it is - how dangerous it is for the future of the country there are open minded politicians that already understand that addressing social issues is beneficial to the future - can provide stable development, sustainable development to the country in twenty years time - but not everyone understands this.
NATALIA EVDOLIMOVA, Head of Committee of Social Affairs, Legislative Assembly: In the transition to the market economy our country found itself in uncharted territory. So walking down this path, it is very important to learn about the international experience. The international organisations bring their experience, they also sponsor the initial stages of new innovative projects.
COMM: Back in her office, Vera tries to contact Yuriy's mother to see if she could meet up with her and provide any support
VERA SMIRNOVA (Translation): Hello, Olga Olegvna sorry to disturb you my name is Vera - I am a social worker with an NGO that works with children can you talk to me for 2 minutes - you're not busy are you?
VERA SMIRNOVA: I think that she had drunk a lot before talking to me - it was obvious - she was drunk. She said that sometimes she is drinking. But it's not the main reason why the son has left the house... In fact there are some difficulties between her son and his stepfather. Frankly, I haven't felt that she is really sorry that her son is not at home.
COMM: Yuriy knows it's only a matter of time before things on the street could get worse - he told us that maybe he could live with his grandmother in the countryside - two hours' drive from St Petersburg.
YURIY: I'd be so happy to see my grandma - I'll give her a big kiss - I'll be very happy to see her. I want to live with my grandma - she's lovely but I feel sorry for Max I don't want to leave him alone - Max and me we are friends - we are good friends and I don't want to leave him alone - because he will feel bad about me.
Oh dear - no luck - the door's locked
COMM: Unfortunately Yuriy's grandmother had gone away.
YURIY: Dear Granny - I came to visit you but you were not at home - I miss you very much. Kisses, Yura
VERA SMIRNOVA: If he stays here in this village, without school, without possibility to get a job in the future with his grandmother - it will be more psychologically comfortable for him. And he wants to stay here...But on the other side, if he lives in St Petersburg, he won't have family, he will live at the street.
The ultimate solution can be to find a guardian for him in St Petersburg, or to take him to a shelter - although I am not sure that it will be easy - so it's disputable which situation is better for him. Frankly I don't see any future for him in any situations.
MAX: I know that to become a doctor, you need to enter a medical institute. But I don't know myself whether it will work out or not - if I really wanted to become a doctor, I would have been at home studying now -but some things prevent me.
YURIY: I wish everyone could live at home with families that don't fight and argue.
VERA: What would you like to happen most of all?
YURIY: What I'd really like is to live with my mum and real dad without my stepfather.
END
December 2003 2246
COMMENTATOR (COMM): The economic and social turmoil that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union has resulted in untold numbers of personal tragedies. While the end of communist rule has led to many positive political and economic changes in people's lives, it's also led to family breakdown, growing poverty and an increase in alcoholism... One of the saddest social indicators is the number of children now forced to live and work on Russian streets. It's a totally new phenomenon. Today estimates show there are one million homeless children throughout Russia. In St Petersburg alone there are 16,000 street children. It's a situation Russian President Vladimir Putin has summed up as the 'most threatening of his country's economic and social indicators'.
VERA SMIRNOVA, Project Manager, 'Protection of Children' The whole system was destroyed and the system of values was destroyed as well many people simply don't believe in their future. They don't have any ideals, because they don't believe in the ideals that existed in the former Soviet Union, and the new ideals haven't been invented for them. Relations between people are destroyed and parents don't take care of their children.
COMM: Max is 13 and Yuriy eleven. They live in the eastern suburbs of St Petersburg. They sleep in the attic at the top of this eight-story housing block. In the winter, they sleep in the basement.
MAX: How much money have you got?
YURIY: Ten kopeks.
MAX: Is that it?
YURIY: Yes.
MAX: I have a rouble - rouble fifty.
This is our cushion. We sleep on it. We use it instead of a pillow. When it is, warm we use our jackets as a pillow - while the cats sleep on this one. This is our typical food for the day. We eat macaroni, dry pasta. We don't eat hot food, because we have nowhere to cook it. This is our hiding place. We hide all the most important things here, but they always go missing. This is our bed. We only got it today because the previous blanket here was... well... Someone privatized it. Well, it was swiped (nicked). And these are our kittens. We took them away, because one woman wanted to drown them, and we felt sorry for them and took them to live with us. They live here. We feed them - when we have food, obviously. This cat is mine, by the way. I have a female cat, and he...
YURIY: I have a Tom cat. My cat. My kitten.
COMM: Max and Yuriy have been living here for the last eight months. They ran away from home for different reasons - Yuriy was being beaten by his alcoholic stepfather, and Max had no parental support - his mother is dead and his father was never at home. They've both abandoned school and neither of them want to return home or to move to the government shelters which have been offered to them. They met on the streets when they were begging.
YURIY: It's me who has to protect him -
MAX: Yes, usually he protects me. But it sort of depends. Sometimes I feel sorry for him - especially when his mum tried to take him home the other day, and he started crying and tried to run away. And then I felt sorry for him - he only just escaped.
YURIY: It all starts with little things - my stepfather gets drunk and starts beating me up for things like I haven't thrown the rubbish away or done the dishes - just for little things... Three months ago my mother met me, and I told her that I am not coming back home. - she tried to frighten me by saying that she would tell the police... I told her - either live with me, or the stepfather. But she didn't care enough and walked away. Sometimes I cry when I think about my mum.
COMML Most street children in St.Petersburg hang around the Metro stations to beg from passing pedestrians. But these are some of the most dangerous places in the city - and a magnet for criminals.
MAX: We come here every morning, day or night. We come here to these kiosks and we start begging. Sometimes we get ask for change and sometimes we ask for food.
YURIY: Sometimes we have to collect empty bottles, whenever we can find them. And then we sell them. That's how we get our money. From six or seven in the afternoon we try to get money for the computer games. We get back from the computer club at about eight in the morning, and sleep until late - five or six in the afternoon.
COMM: Computer clubs have sprung up throughout Russia. Frequented by young boys and teenagers, they stay open all night - a haven for paedophiles. And yet sometimes Yuriy and Max feel safer staying here at night rather than going to sleep in their attic whilst it's still dark - there they've already been threatened by men several times.
MAX: For me, the most dangerous thing about living on the street - in attics and cellars - is paedophiles. That's the most dangerous thing... I know lots of people, who have been - how do you put this? - abused.
YURIY: If someone I don't know approaches me, it is really scary - that's the most frightening thing. Like that man with a knife last night - he was really dangerous. I was petrified - we had to run away from him to lose him.
MAX: To tell you the truth, I know people who are working as prostitutes to find money for themselves and their families. For instance Masha, her mother drinks. She hasn't got a father. And she has a small brother to take care of.
COMM: In the last few years the St.Petersburg authorities have set up a force of special, child-friendly police to help - and protect - the growing number of children who live on the streets.
YURIY: We have... I personally know three good policemen. I can't stand the rest of them.
MAX: We run away from them, of course, and try to hide from them. Because if they pick us up, they take us to the police's young offenders unit. And then the pile of papers grows and grows and grows... And then - oops - right, boy, it's your turn! And then it's...
YURIY: ...Special School (school for difficult children)
MAX: ...reform school, shelters, orphanage...And then possibly prison - depending on how old you are and what you've done...
COMM: New teams of social workers have also been introduced - but they are very few and like the police - they're not always trusted by the children they are supposed to be helping. The solutions they offer like state shelters are not often appreciated.
MAX: There are lots of social workers and people who pretend to be social workers. I don't trust them. Some of them can work for a rapist, or maniacs... Even if they are good people, what can the social workers offer anyway? - special school shelter? or a flat where you can live temporarily with a family? - but it's also dangerous, and we are afraid to go there.
NATALIYA EVDOKIMOVA, Head of Committee of Social Affairs, Legislative Assembly, St Petersburg: Our children's homes are out-dated - big, prison like institutions that house 150 to 200 people... The children live in huge rooms like army barracks, and there is no personal attention to anyone. Children of course run away from this life - partly because of the violent behaviour of other children, the older children, or the supervisors.
COMM: Vera Smirnova works for the NGO 'The Protection of Children', (a partner in the ILO's programme for working street children). She and her social work colleagues visit the children on the streets several times a week to offer their help.
VERA SMIRNOVA, Project Manager, 'Protection of Children' Social work - in the modern meaning - has never existed in the Soviet Union, and that's why our methods of work and our approaches had to be changed - I think we need more social workers now. Sometimes we have to visit these children several times - many times - because many of them don't feel they can rely on adults. And we need to have many contacts with them before they start to believe us. There are about thirty different kinds of job children are doing - children usually start collecting bottles or begging when they come to the street but very soon they are getting involved in criminal activities - involved in prostitution - they start using drugs, drinking, smoking.
COMM: Many children turn to glue sniffing as a way of coping. They say it also helps to reduce hunger. But prolonged use of glue can cause brain damage, and affects both their emotions and intellect.
GIRLS: You become funny, you hallucinate... First of all, you feel weak - and then the other way round - you feel good!
You can do whatever you like - hallucinate, Like you think of something you want and then it feels as if you've got it
COMM: Sometimes we have to visit these children several times - many times - because many of them don't feel they can rely on adults. And we need to have many contacts with them before they start to believe us. There are about thirty different kinds of job children are doing - children usually start collecting bottles or begging when they come to the street but very soon they are getting involved in criminal activities - involved in prostitution - they start using drugs, drinking, smoking. This drop-in centre run by Médecins du Monde offers girls and boys who live on the street medical, social, and psychological support. The number of diseases contracted by children is escalating.
LENA CHERKASSOVA, Paediatrician, Médecins du Monde: We have to deal with a high number of burns and injuries - several illnesses connected to the drug addiction: hepatitis C, hepatitis B and then there's HIV/AIDS. We get many girls coming to our centre who are involved in the sex business who make money for drugs and for their needs by selling sex. The blood tests results in 2001 showed that every tenth child whose blood was tested was HIV positive -and don't forget we are talking about children aged between 14 and 18.
COMM:: Dima has been living on the streets for the last four years. He frequently runs away from state shelters, he's been ill several times and visits this centre when he needs help. His parents like many others in St Petersburg sold their city centre apartment to opportunists - leaving the entire family homeless - they were alcoholics and beat him. Misha, the Centre psychologist uses tests to gauge how Dima is coping.
MICHAEL NIKITIN, Psychiatrist, Médecins du Monde: He has a lot of mental problems - he has a lot of bad experience - beating and some sexual exploitation, because he met some adults - for example some men who exploited him. He has spent a lot of time on the streets - he can't stay into shelters more than five days because he is very active, very aggressive person. I think he will be a criminal. In two or three years he will be sent to the prison or to the hospital with some disease - I think there is no other way...
COMM:: When Dima isn't staying with some men he met on the street, he lives here, in this derelict car.
ALEXEI BOUKHAROV, IPEC National Programme Manager Russia should think about its children - those children can still become normal citizens, can become mothers, can become soldiers, can become workers who will work for the prosperity of Russia... And if we do not support them now, they will become street people - useless people who will be a burden to the state. Now we have got only one generation of street children who are in the age bracket of lets say 7 to 18 right and most of them will grow up and have their own children and this will create street people.
COMM: Street children miss out on their education - Svetlana though is one of the lucky ones - she's back at school and has a future, she is safe and has been reunited with her family - it wasn't long ago that she, too, was on the streets looking for food when her mother (beaten by her alcoholic husband) became too ill to care for her.
SVETLANA(Translation): When mum didn't have any bread, we went to collect bottles. We decided... well, the baby didn't have any milk - we were deciding what to do. So we went to collect bottles so we could get bread.
COMM: Street social workers rescued Svetlana and the family has been enrolled into a year long programme which supports them until her mother Natasha can get back on her feet. Every week they meet up with other families who have faced similar problems.
SVETLANA (Translation): These classes are really useful and interesting for us - we learn lots of new things - we have to talk about our experiences and now were like one big happy family...
ALEXEI BOUKHAROV, IPEC National Programme Manager: We've got two major aims. First of all, to sensitize the public at large - and the politicians - on the issue of child labour. And the second aim is to help working street children directly... The main barrier we are facing is a lack of understanding. This issue is still underestimated - the issue of street children is underestimated... It is underestimated how grave it is - how dangerous it is for the future of the country there are open minded politicians that already understand that addressing social issues is beneficial to the future - can provide stable development, sustainable development to the country in twenty years time - but not everyone understands this.
NATALIA EVDOLIMOVA, Head of Committee of Social Affairs, Legislative Assembly: In the transition to the market economy our country found itself in uncharted territory. So walking down this path, it is very important to learn about the international experience. The international organisations bring their experience, they also sponsor the initial stages of new innovative projects.
COMM: Back in her office, Vera tries to contact Yuriy's mother to see if she could meet up with her and provide any support
VERA SMIRNOVA (Translation): Hello, Olga Olegvna sorry to disturb you my name is Vera - I am a social worker with an NGO that works with children can you talk to me for 2 minutes - you're not busy are you?
VERA SMIRNOVA: I think that she had drunk a lot before talking to me - it was obvious - she was drunk. She said that sometimes she is drinking. But it's not the main reason why the son has left the house... In fact there are some difficulties between her son and his stepfather. Frankly, I haven't felt that she is really sorry that her son is not at home.
COMM: Yuriy knows it's only a matter of time before things on the street could get worse - he told us that maybe he could live with his grandmother in the countryside - two hours' drive from St Petersburg.
YURIY: I'd be so happy to see my grandma - I'll give her a big kiss - I'll be very happy to see her. I want to live with my grandma - she's lovely but I feel sorry for Max I don't want to leave him alone - Max and me we are friends - we are good friends and I don't want to leave him alone - because he will feel bad about me.
Oh dear - no luck - the door's locked
COMM: Unfortunately Yuriy's grandmother had gone away.
YURIY: Dear Granny - I came to visit you but you were not at home - I miss you very much. Kisses, Yura
VERA SMIRNOVA: If he stays here in this village, without school, without possibility to get a job in the future with his grandmother - it will be more psychologically comfortable for him. And he wants to stay here...But on the other side, if he lives in St Petersburg, he won't have family, he will live at the street.
The ultimate solution can be to find a guardian for him in St Petersburg, or to take him to a shelter - although I am not sure that it will be easy - so it's disputable which situation is better for him. Frankly I don't see any future for him in any situations.
MAX: I know that to become a doctor, you need to enter a medical institute. But I don't know myself whether it will work out or not - if I really wanted to become a doctor, I would have been at home studying now -but some things prevent me.
YURIY: I wish everyone could live at home with families that don't fight and argue.
VERA: What would you like to happen most of all?
YURIY: What I'd really like is to live with my mum and real dad without my stepfather.
END