[This is a photo story. Click the underlined text to see the image we're talking about. Click the back button on your browser to return to the story after you have viewed the image.]
Saturday morning brought us all face-to-face with intense poverty in a way that none of us had ever experienced. We were first taken to meet with Nina Rusonova, the manager of the local 'Resource Centre for Elderly' project. A tough woman who was putting up with an office with the temperature somewhere below freezing proudly showed us her piles of second-hand clothes, treatment room (equally cold) and supply of medicines that she gives out for free to the vulnerable. We then went on a short trip to the house of a married couple she works with.
From the outside, the house simply looks in an advanced state of disrepair. But nothing could have prepared us for the experience.
Lapina (aged 56) greeted us with huge enthusiasm but her emotion soon turned to tears as she began to tell us of their situation. Their house is completely dilapidated offering little protection from the cold due to a broken roof which they cannot afford to mend, torn plastic sheeting over windows and an ill-fitting door to two rooms which are little more than outbuildings.
We sidled past a fierce dog chained to a wall and spoke with Lapina and her husband, Nikolai, in the single room they live in (their dwelling only accounts for around a 1/3 of the house frontage you see on the photographs). Apart from a bed in one corner where Nikolai (aged 70) is lying under a heap of clothing with a small kitten seeking warmth, their belongings amount to piles of rags, scattered food bowls on the floor and one electric-ringed stove -the only source of comfort in the room. This is the filthiest living space any of us have ever seen.
They are both wrapped up against the cold – which today is minus 17 – she has few front teeth and her hands are blackened from the dirt. Their mental anguish is very close to the surface.
They moved away from the house - which has been in her family since the 1950s - ten years ago to find work. On their return five years later they found the house ransacked – her relatives had died and the house had been broken into.
Now they barely exist on her pension of 380 som per month (US$7) which is not enough to buy food – let alone mend the roof. They have no children, he is virtually blind with cataracts and though entitled to a pension (he served as a solider in WWII) he cannot receive it – his documents were stolen. Due to lack of money, they can ill-afford the journey to replace them.
They are in extreme emotional distress and their situation is obviously making things worse.
The interview is heart-wrenchingly difficult and uncomfortable. The group left the room so Steven could take photographs. Nikolai sits there quietly and seems dignified despite everything. Steven is struggling to keep the camera focussed, wondering where on earth God is in all this.
Outside Lapina stands with her dog outside the house. Staring into the camera, we are transfixed by her eyes. We go to leave and she holds on to Amanda, crying and not letting go. We all get into the minibus scarred by the experience. Was this just a macabre tourist experience. Was Lapina expecting us to help her there and then. Should we have? Sat here writing this, I think we all feel guilty that we didn't.
This is a classic example of the vulnerability we are beginning to see here in Kyrgysztan. There is little or no state provision for vulnerable groups: the elderly, disabled, displaced or working children - and unemployed women who have little hope of improving their lives often in the face of extremely harsh conditions.
It is one of the AgeNet partners which is providing Lapina and Nikolai with some food and supporting them to get new pension documents. We're humbled to have witnessed it but there's no clear picture for their future.
[We discussed the possibility of visiting a remote mountain village where many people live in the same state of abject poverty as Lapina and Niklai but conditions would have been too dangerous to travel (temperatures of minus 50 and four hours to complete a 20km mountain pass journey). This says something about the remoteness of this landlocked country.]
Hi Simona, the blog relates to a trip through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The chained to poverty article does originate from Kyrgyz. You're right to say that Tajikistan is indeed the poorest country in the region but Kyrgyz suffers significant poverty too, particularly amongst the elderly. Thanks for visiting the blog
Posted by: Steven Buckley | August 29, 2007 at 20:06
Is this Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan? The title says Tajikistan, but further down I read it say Kyrgyzstan. I have visited Kyrgyzstan and never seen anything like this. I could imagine it in Tajikistan though, as it's far poorer and since independance has suffered from 7 years of civil war, famine and rationing of water and electricity outside of the capital.
Posted by: Simona Cutmorazov | August 29, 2007 at 18:09
It sounds like Afghanistan, in fact... only worse, because here, there is tons of money coming in and there are programmes all over. Thanks for bringing the poverty of Soviet Central Asia to the attention of the world...
Posted by: Elizabeth | February 17, 2006 at 17:26
Now I live in Moscow, but I am from Tajikistan.
I have casually got on your site, I have read your photo story “Chained to poverty”.
I see such things for a long time.
My family lives in Tajikistan now, but I try to get them from there to Moscow for several years, but sometimes I think it's impossible, because Russian's Goverment doesn't give me the citizenship of Russia (it's very important to have a good work in Russia), even I do not break laws and I have education of a specialist of law.
Now I'm looking for possibilities to immigrate to any western country.
Before I was very optimistic, but now I have understood that there are much of injustice in the World.
Thank you very much for assistence.
God will bless you.
Posted by: Dilshod | January 27, 2006 at 11:09
How humbling ..... I got onto this site when looking for a favourite site... what is God saying to me - to us - from my position as a Western Christian seeking with all my heart to LIVE for Him? I'd appreciate your prayers that I will be bold and obedient.
Posted by: Marina Carrier | January 16, 2006 at 13:14
Hey Steven
Very interesting accounts here on the blog- reminds me a lot of when I was in Bosnia.
I don't envy you on that internal flight, keep up the good work!
Love M & G X
Posted by: MarkB | January 11, 2006 at 23:03
I followed your link from "How to Save the World" . A very powerful story here. Would you be able to post a contact address for the Agenet partner and others who are in a position to help? Reading this does make one feel helpless. At least this couple seems in reasonably good health apart from the emotional distress. Good health and the ability to live independantly are at least two things they have going for them. I would like to read more stories that show the strength, stamina, and fortitude of people challanged by such circumstances. It is something to admire.
Good Work
Posted by: Theresa Purcell | January 10, 2006 at 19:02
Steven, Catherine, Frances and friends - your brilliant blog has brought the bleakness, emotion, and humanity of people in Tajikistan to life in 425. It is good/novel/inspiring to feel involved in your adventures and discoveries from my desktop. I wish we could tune into more trips like this. Keep warm. Lots of love, Sara
PS The photos are really good
Posted by: Sara Chamberlain | January 10, 2006 at 15:22
Thank you Steven for showing us yet another way that technology can help us to do our jobs better. We are surrounded by powerful stories, so much so that we probably don't do many of them justice, but this new way of delivering a story makes it even more powerful than it otherwise would be.
Thank you, and keep warm.
Jenny
Posted by: Jenny Ayres | January 10, 2006 at 11:29
Thank you so much for Lapina and Nikolai's story. I couldn't help but feel that Jesus came to put the world to rights for people such as these.
Take care.
Posted by: David Muir | January 10, 2006 at 11:11
I read this and was moved beyond words.
You are all in our thoughts and prayers. Steven - we will miss you in Swanwick but I sense you are in the right place this week.
Love to you all
Linda
Posted by: linda | January 10, 2006 at 10:45
Moving and shocking. Thank you for sharing this. A timely reminder of the real reason why we work for Christian Aid.
Take care on your travels
Jon
Posted by: Jon Day | January 09, 2006 at 11:54
I've travelled widely for CA in over 20 years of work and been to many very poor places (I thought I'd seen everything), but was appalled by your story and the photos. I think the cold makes it so much harder to view the poverty of this couple and, of course, cold is something we can imagine easily in our island. I've wept too on visits and really feel for you. Keep it up, we need to know this.
Posted by: Sue Richardson | January 09, 2006 at 11:26
This immediacy of information is great. I am now beginning to feel guilty sitting in this warm CA office. Amanda - anything to flag for CAW07?? The images and words do convey the heartrending nature of poverty. I see that Amanda's compassionate nature has been well spotted - evident in the embrace. Go well and keep warm. Look forward to latching onto this new way of working.
Posted by: Ramani Leathard | January 09, 2006 at 10:22
Hi All,
Excellent and engaging stuff. Go easy on the government ministers though - I need Catherine back here in one piece!
Best get back to it Sara C has just returned from her hols. A day of planning awaits. Arghhhhhhh!!
Posted by: Phil Lee | January 09, 2006 at 10:09
Just wanted to let you know that you and all the team are constantly in our thoughts and prayers at the moment. Prayers were said for Steven and the Christian Aid Team at All Saints Church in Cheltenham today. The message in the morning service was a particularly poignant one as the words and pictures of the report on Lapina and Nicolai dwelt in my mind: "We are not called to do exceptional things, but rather to do ordinary things with exceptional love." (Mother Teresa of Calcutta).
Nick
Posted by: Nick Kaleniuk | January 09, 2006 at 00:46
Thanks for sharing these difficult experiences and for highlighting the extent of poverty in Kyrgyzstan.
The words and photos help us to understand the very difficult conditions people are living in - and the impact that miniscule or non-existant social support has (particularly during the bitterly cold winter months).
Wishing you a safe arrival into Dushanbe and more interesting if equally challenging experiences.
Posted by: Rob Hargreaves | January 08, 2006 at 09:05
This is fascinating. I'm talking to a potential supporter here in the US who is really interested in our work in Central Asia. Are we sharing this outside CA yet? I think he'd be intrigued.
Nice to know there's somewhere colder than New York in January...
Morag
Posted by: Morag Burnett | January 07, 2006 at 20:42