Întâlnirea cu fraţii Neda – , Emilia, Amalia şi Gabriel, a fost extrem de emoţionantă. I-am cunoscut la scurt timp după ce au ajuns la Asociaţia „Isus Speranţa României”. Şi-au făcut duş şi aşteptau cu emoţie să-i cunoască pe noii lor părinţi şi fraţi. Viaţa lor a fost tristă şi plină de greutăţi, dar Amalia de 10 ani, a îndrăznit să ceară ajutorul oamenilor din localitatea natală în care trăiau alături de mama şi străbunica lor şi să înceapă o viaţă frumoasă. Desele bătăi primite de la cea care le-a dat viaţă, cu fierul, lemnul sau orice avea la îndemână, le-a determinat pe fetiţe să fugă de acasă. Câteva zile s-au adăpostit în şopronul casei unui vecin, în fân, unde se încălzeau la lumina lumânării… Vecinul nu a stat nepăsător şi a solicitat implicarea autorităţilor locale. În urma anchetelor, cei trei fraţi au ajuns pentru un timp în grija Centrului de Primire Urgenţe, iar de aici, au fost repartizaţi ISR-ului. Gabriel şi Emilia se ţineau strâns de mânuţe şi uneori schiţau un zâmbet… În schimb, Amalia, a devenit purtătorul de cuvânt al fraţilor ei. „Părinţii noştri nu au locuit împreună. Tata stătea la părinţii lui, iar mama locuia cu bunica ei. Nu mai aveam curent, pentru că mama nu a mai plătit factura. Mama s-a purtat tare rău cu noi. Ne bătea cu fierul, cu lemnul, cu palma. Ne punea să facem curăţenie, mâncare. Aduceam apă ca să spălăm cu mâna. Ea trăia din banii ce-i primea pentru noi. Uneori nu avea ce să ne dea de mâncare. Cel mai mult am mâncat cartofi. Când nu am mai răbdat am fugit. Cei mici nu au putut să fugă cu noi. Pe ei i-a luat mai târziu poliţistul de acasă. Şi bunica voia să fugă la mătuşa pentru că mama o bătea şi pe ea”. Cât timp au locuit cu mama, fetele au mers la şcoală, însă au fost declarate repetente. De când au ajuns la ISR au reînceput şcoala şi sunt hotărâte să înveţe. Sunt fericite că au găsit părinţi care le oferă dragoste, casă şi îngrijire zilnică, ca o compensare a zilelor în care au fost bătute şi flămânde.
Meeting with the Neda siblings – Emilia, Amalia and Gabriel – has been an extremely intense and touching moment. I met them shortly after they came to live at Onesimus Brothers. They had just taken a shower and were really nervous about meeting their new parents and brothers & sisters. Their life was utterly sad and filled with hardships and the older girl Amalia (who is 10) mustered up her courage and asked for help. She talked to the people who lived in their neighborhood and as soon as they did this, they began to hope for a better life. It all started with the frequent beatings administered by their mother, using an iron bar or whatever else was at hand. The girls could not take it anymore and ran away from home. For a while, they slept in a neighbor’s bam, in the hay. The man could not stay indifferent to this situation and alerted the local authorities. Investigations were carried out and the four siblings were taken into the care of the Child Protection Services and later on, entrusted to JHOR. Gabriel and Emilia held hands tightly and barely smiled once in a while. Amalia, on the other hand, became very quickly the spokesperson of the family. “Our parents did not live together. Our father lived with his parents and our mother lived with our grandmother. We had no electricity because our mother stopped paying the bills. She was very mean to us. She used to beat us using anything she could find around. We had to clean the house and prepare the food. We would bring water using a bucket in order to wash our clothes. Our mother took all the money she received from the state for us and used it for her own good. Quite often, there was nothing to eat. Most of the time, we just ate potatoes. When we could not take it anymore, we ran away. The little ones could not go with us – they were picked up later by a policeman. Our grandmother wanted to run away too, because she was also beaten up by our mother.” As we were talking, the kids joined the conversation and, with tears streaming down their faces, they told us their mother promised them she would take them home. “When we were in the protection of the Child Service, she visited us but she only played with our feelings. She lied that she would take us home but she only told us off for going to the police. She never played with us” While living with their mother, the older girls went to school but they kept being left behind. They started going to a new school since they came to live at JHOR and are determined to do much better this time. They are happy to have found parents who offer them love, a home and daily care – all of these to make up for the many days in which they were abused and hungry.
