“Nobody Cares About Us”
A mother and son in Yekaterinburg, Russia, were surprised when strangers helped them.
At the end of the summer, social services asked us to take in 16-year-old Slava who was wandering around a low-income dormitory building asking the residents for food.
Slava lived with his mother in one room of the dorm, but she had been on a drinking binge somewhere for a month. The boy was sick, hungry, and despairing when he arrived at our shelter home.
“I’m tired of this life with my mother. We left our apartment in the city to come here and rent a single room. Mum is somehow unlucky; she’s always getting involved in stupid things. Men betray her, take advantage of her, and then leave her. She got a job, but she didn’t get paid. When she gets frustrated, she starts drinking. I can’t watch her all the time and pull her out of trouble. I should be going to school and studying! It feels like we are alone and nobody cares about us,” Slava lamented. We could understand why he felt the way he did.
Help given at the right time can change someone's life.
We took Slava to the hospital for a thorough exam. Then we returned to the dormitory to look for his mother. She had made her way back and was lying, half-conscious, on a dirty sofa in a filthy room. We called the drug treatment center and paid for emergency help. She recovered.
The day after she was discharged, we went to see her, but her situation had worsened: she had fallen and seemed to have broken a leg. We helped her to the communal shower in the dormitory, washed and dressed her in new clothes (she hadn’t done so in a very long time), and called an ambulance. We had to literally beg the first responders to transport this woman to the hospital.
Our suspicion of a fractured femur was correct. Her leg was put in a cast.
While we were caring for this woman in the dormitory, some residents came out of their rooms, looked at us in wonder, and asked, “Who are you? How are you associated with this alcoholic woman? Why are you helping her?” Then they declared, “There are still good people in the world!” and “God will reward you a hundredfold.”
We believe a new beginning is now dawning for this mother and son. Slava is living in our shelter home for the time being. When his mother’s leg heals we will find a job for her and continue to help them and point them to the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
