Independent Appeal: Help for the children left behind

A British charity is providing support for Moldovan families broken by poverty and neglect

(LAYTON THOMPSON)

Maria drops her voice to a whisper and her eyes redden as she recalls the day that she woke up to find her alcoholic mother standing over her bed pointing a knife at her throat.

The 11-year-old explains that she is not certain if her mother intended to harm her before continuing to relate a grim catalogue of abuse: regular beatings, neglect and having to watch as her sole parent, drunk on cheap alcohol, had sex in front of her.

When asked what life was like, she musters a single word: "Bad." It was a relief, she says, when her mother left her in the house for three months under the scant supervision of neighbours to work in Moscow.

But most shockingly of all, Maria's story is not rare in Iargara, a village deep in the Moldovan countryside close to the Romanian border some 100 miles east of the capital, Chisinau. For a distressing number of children in Europe's poorest country, large elements of her ordeal – alcoholism, violence and absent parents – are all too typical.

This once-bustling community of 4,500 people has fallen foul of a toxic cocktail of social breakdown and poverty caused by the collapse of the state-run collectives that used to sustain rural life in this former Soviet satellite state. As a result, more than half of its working adults go abroad to earn a living wage.

This epidemic of deprivation has turned parts of Iargara into a ghost town where only the young and the old remain. Many of those who stay turn to the oblivion offered by vodka which costs as little as 90p a bottle.

As if the children of Iargara did not have enough to contend with, its proximity to Romania presents another menace in the shape of human traffickers who have been known to snatch teenagers from the streets or pay impoverished families to take a child or adolescent abroad where they are sold into prostitution or manual labour. Last year, a 16-year-old boy was abducted from the village and driven to Chisinau, where he was kept in a cellar before managing to escape.

Residents are at pains to underline that this dire situation does not afflict the majority of Iargara's inhabitants. As one put it: "Happiness exists here too, it is not only a valley of tears." But the deprivation and hardship is prevalent enough to make the existence of the Centrul Communitar Pentru Copii – a children's centre that opened in 2008 – a vital refuge.

Every day, Maria and around 60 other children aged between five and 16 arrive at the centre funded by the British agency Children on the Edge – one of the three charities to which we are asking Independent readers to make donations in this year's Christmas Appeal – to spend a few precious hours basking in the sort of basic attention that is often painfully lacking at home – a chance to do homework, paint a picture, take a shower and eat a nourishing meal.

Raisa Ivanova, who balances her day job as the headteacher at the village schools with her role as the director of the centre, says: "We exist because there are in this village parents who don't care about their children or are unable to care for them simply because they are not here. We offer a place of safety, of normality, where the children have access to things they don't have at home. We show them there is another life."

The crucial role played by the centre is shown by girls such as Adriana, 13, and her 16-year-old half-sister Gina, who is due to give birth to her first child in January. When their parents went to work in Moscow they moved in with their grandmother.

Gina fell pregnant to her 20-year-old boyfriend. That led to her being banished from her home. Forced to drop out of school by her family, she was found living in animal sheds. Social workers attached to the centre negotiated with the family to allow Gina to return home and she now receives help from Raisa and her staff.

Without such pastoral care, it is possible that Gina could have suffered the horrific fate of her friend, Catarina, another 18-year-old who was found strangled on the outskirts of the village last autumn, after rumours circulated that she was HIV positive. More than a year after the killing, no arrests have been made.

"My boyfriend doesn't want to recognise the baby, so I will raise it myself," says Gina. "I am embarrassed by the situation but I am glad there is help here." Iargara and its problems are typical of those found across a country which prides itself on the natural bounty of its orchards and vineyards but has seen the countryside empty of its human capital.

Moldova, Europe's poorest country, is also the world's second most reliant on remittances from its citizens working abroad, sending home $1.6bn a year, equivalent to about a third of its GDP. According to the International Labour Organisation around 300,000 of the 4.5 million Moldovans have left the country to work in locations from Portugal to Russia.

A study in 2005 found that 110,000 Moldovan children lived in a household where either one or both parents are absent. It is likely that this number has only increased since.

In Iargara, Raisa and her co-workers hope that the centre can begin to rebuild the social cohesion that has been lost. But it will be a long road. Maria has been returned to her mother's care after consultations with social workers, but lives in a home that has no electricity.

Unemployment also looms large. Of the 36 state enterprises that used to operate in and around the village, five remain. Together, they employ just 200 people in a subsistence economy where others are paid for their labour in bread and wine.

Costea, Dumitru and Andrei are nine-year-olds who live in a hamlet near Iargara. When asked what they want to do with their lives, each offers the same answer: "I won't go abroad and be a builder like my dad."

Names have been changed to protect the identity of some of the children

The charities in this year's Independent Christmas Appeal

Children around the world cope daily with problems that are difficult for most of us to comprehend. For our Christmas Appeal this year we have chosen three charities which support vulnerable children everywhere.

* Children on the Edge was founded by Anita Roddick 20 years ago to help children institutionalised in Romanian orphanages. It specialises in traumatised children. It still works in eastern Europe, supporting children with disabilities and girls at risk of sex trafficking. But it now works with children in extreme situations in a dozen countries – children orphaned by AIDS in South Africa, post-tsunami trauma in Indonesia, long-term post-conflict disturbance in East Timor, and with Burmese refugee children in Bangladesh and Thailand. www.childrenontheedge.org

* ChildHope works to bring hope and justice, colour and fun into the lives of extremely vulnerable children experiencing different forms of violence in 11 countries in Africa, Asia and South America. www.childhope.org.uk

* Barnardo's works with more than 100,000 of the most disadvantaged children in 415 specialised projects in communities across the UK. It works with children in poverty, homeless runaways, children caring for an ill parent, pupils at risk of being excluded from school, children with disabilities, teenagers leaving care, children who have been sexually abused and those with inappropriate sexual behaviour. It runs parenting programmes. www.barnardos.org.uk

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE INDEPENDENT APPEAL