Two miles short of the turn off to the abandoned village of Seda , where TSA opened a small corps in 2008, lies the Regional Psychiatric Hospital, and which has become the region’s drunk tank (US term for holding cell) on weekends and long term alcoholic residential treatment facility for the ‘A Team’ alcoholics. The hospital was the FSAOF team’s temporary home during our 2011 mission visit. And many friendly jokes were born.
In speaking with the hospital’s director I enquired as to how many alcoholics return to a life of sobriety, or at the very least one where alcohol no longer controls every waking moment. The Matron shook her head sadly and said, “ Our success rate is extremely low. The problem is, once they’ve gone through detox and examined the cause of their disease they are released and return to the cause! It’s the dismal life of rural Latvia, a life without hope.”
In speaking with the hospital’s director I enquired as to how many alcoholics return to a life of sobriety, or at the very least one where alcohol no longer controls every waking moment. The Matron shook her head sadly and said, “ Our success rate is extremely low. The problem is, once they’ve gone through detox and examined the cause of their disease they are released and return to the cause! It’s the dismal life of rural Latvia, a life without hope.”
Yesterday we met one of those former patients; in and out of care for more than 15 years. In fact we saw passed out in a snow bank on our first visit to Sarkani in 2008. And we met her again today at the Riga I Corps looking very different. She was smartly dressed in a Salvation Army uniform and helping to receive the morning offering. What no psychiatric hospital could do for her Jesus Christ did in giving her hope and the foundation for a new life.
We are back in Latvia, this being our 12th visit in four years representing the FSAOF as we seek to bring Christmas cheer to adults and the Fellowship's 'adopted' children in Sarkani and Seda.
It was on our 2nd visit that we learned the plight of the children living in two abandoned villages. The majority are the children of full-fledged alcoholics, mostly ethnic Russians and consequently, shunned by the native Latvians living in the same region.
Immediately following Peretroika and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Latvia, the government decreed that the ethnic Russian alcoholic population (non Latvian passport holders) be banished to 'live' far from any key city and designated two abandoned villages, Sarkani and Seda as their forcibly adopted homes.
The government's only commitment to the 'outcast' citizens is a measly monthly living stipend that quickly ends up in the pockets of visiting bootleggers. In addition, anything not securely attached in the buildings and flats is ripped out and bartered for booze. This has resulted in flats without water, toilets, stoves and heating facilities. Even unsecured firewood is pilfered and traded for cheap vodka and cognac.
We are back in Latvia, this being our 12th visit in four years representing the FSAOF as we bring Christmas cheer to adults and the Fellowship's 'adopted' children in Sarkani and Seda.
A British newspaper reported that: ‘A half of the children in the UK have seen their parents drunk, with 30% living in fear when they see adults drink too much.
Tomorrow we will again be visiting the two villages in Latvia where all the children have seen their parents drunk and this on a daily basis. And, to avoid living in fear the children avoid their homes and spend the majority of their waking hours outdoors in summer as well as winter.
Often on their return home from school their parents were found passed out on the village streets and were helped home to their meager living quarters by their children. The majority of the children’s parents are alcoholics and drink 24/7 and can be found in stupors along the roadside in the villages.
We first visited the children in January, 2008 when we had the pleasure of meeting them on a wintry day with temperatures dipping into -30s. The children, well dressed and warm, the recipients of a partial donation of several hundred winter coats given as a result of a ‘FSAOF’ initiative, came streaming out of the woods at the sound of our car entering their village.
Our second initiative, prompted by a request from the SA Regional Commander, Peter Baronowsky, was to provide finance in order to give each child at least one healthy meal daily. Prior to the FSAOF’s commitment to these children they had no daily meals provided during their school hours and were assigned seats in the corner of the dining room where they watched the other children enjoy a lunch. The FSAOF donated several thousand dollars to ensure that the Sarkani children would also be provided a wholesome meal and therefore have the physical nourishment to complete their studies and withstand the rigours of outdoor life in wintery Latvia. The FSAOF contribution covered the cost of all school meals for these children through the end of the school year in May, 2010.
PART ONE - Latvia's Abandoned Villages
Dr . Sven Ljungholm on behalf of the FSAOF
Former SA officer USA East
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