Meeting Vera
Extract from the Diary
by Karin Demuth
Vera talks about her children in a cultured manner. She knows their strengths and weaknesses and describes them in detail. Whilst Vera is telling me about how she tries to support and encourage all her children, and to give them what they need, I realise what an incredible task this woman has taken on. I can understand why she is worried about how she will manage the step back into normal life after the SOS Children's Village. Mama Faith, her colleague in Kenya, had already told me that she thought that SOS mothers more than deserved the pensions they receive from the organisation. I can only agree with Mama Faith when I see how Vera puts all her energy and strength into bringing up her children. Vera is fulfilled by what she does and certain that she has found her purpose in life. She was one of the pioneers in Russia, as SOS Children's Village Tomilino was the first in the country. The SOS Children's Village concept has attained the status of a model facility here in Russia, as it has done in many other countries. This is particularly understandable when you take into consideration under what sort of conditions children live in Russia's orphanages.
A stroll through the neighbourhood: The nouveaux riches' swanky houses - if you can catch a glimpse of them through the fences - lie next to the pretty dachas in the little birch forest. A little further on you can see the usual high-rise blocks and, apart from them, there are also the "occupied" potato fields. These are fields where people plant vegetables, even though the ground does not belong to them. There are fences all around, because fences are necessary. They have to be as high as possible, made of wood, corrugated iron or concrete; and either with or without barbed wire. A piece of ground that is not fenced-in is pretty much an invitation to help yourself. There is a lot of rubbish, a proliferation of greenery and a newly-built housing estate, large and uniform. And in the midst of it all is the SOS Children's Village. It is somehow different and yet still a part of this neighbourliness and chaos. It is part of Russian reality.
Vera's Story will be published here soon
All these mother's stories come from SOS Children's Village Hermann Gmeiner Academy. Copyright is reserved and no unauthorized use permitted. Use for non-commercial purposes may be requested. The interviews telling about the lives of some SOS Mothers form part of an interesting study on being a replacement Mother to children in need in SOS Children's communities worldwide.