My family is important

When Andrejs became an alcoholic, and his wife Svetlana was sentenced to prison, their four children had to move in with another family. The Red Cross family support centre in Valka helped Andre stop drinking, and after two years the family was reunited.
“I finally understood that my family is more important than alcohol,” says Andrejs.

Andrejs and Svetlana are sitting in their kitchen together with Tatjana Voroncova, one of the social workers from the family support centre in the Latvian city of Valka. The two-room apartment is on the top floor of a grey, torn-down block house on the outskirts of the city. Andrejs and Svetlana try to renovate as much as possible, but they don’t have much money left when the rent and electricity is paid for. The children’s room was a priority to get done first, and is now decorated with new wallpaper covered with small frogs and princesses.

Andrejs and Svetlana explain how grateful they are for the help from the Red Cross family support centre, a project supported by World Childhood Foundation. Their children are now able to go to the centre after school-, and during summer.

“Our children like it better there than at home. There is nothing for them to do here, but at the centre they have computers, they can play games or paint,” Andrejs says.

Thanks to the Red Cross family support centre, and with support from social worker Tatjana Voroncova, Andrejs finally also managed to stop drinking. Tatjana Voroncova came and visited Andrejs at home several times a week and talked to him about his abuse. When his wife Svetlana was sentenced to prison after committing a monetary crime, Andrejs was unable to take care of their children.

“I know how difficult it is to stop drinking, since I have been an alcoholic myself,” Tatjana Voroncova explains.

Eventually, Andrejs managed to stop drinking, and Svetlana completed her sentence and was released. Their three youngest children could now move back in with mom and dad.

“It’s fantastic to be a normal family again,” Andrejs says with a smile.

Tatjana Voroncova still comes to see them now and then, to keep an eye on them and to make sure the family is doing well. But it’s a soft kind of control. She, Svetlana and Andrejs have become friends for life.

Read more about Childhood

Tatjana Voroncova

Maja Svenonius, Childhood