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Music and Art at the Ukrainian Institute of America
Posted by Apple Blossom on August 30, 2005 at 22:21:40:
About 50 women from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova gather every day from noon to 5 p.m. under three enormous ficus magnolioides trees on the central Piazza Amendola, finding shelter from the hot summer sun while waiting for someone to offer them a job. For 600 euros to 800 euros per month, they are ready to take care of the young, the old and the sick.
...
Irina, 55, a former teacher of European history, arrived nine months earlier from a village in Ukraine that she did not want to name. Like Guzhevnikova, she came on a tourist visa. Frustrated after months of unemployment or temporary jobs, Irina, who said she was too embarrassed to give her last name, was much more pessimistic.
"Many women," she said, taking a reporter a few steps away from the other women, "carry their belongings because they don't have a place to stay. They sleep in the houses of some friends who are lucky to work for a family, but they have to leave the place early in the morning."
Finding a permanent job with a family was very difficult, she said. "People hire you when someone is sick or old, but when that person recovers or dies, you are fired and you are again in the middle of the street," she said.
Irina, a small dark-haired woman with many gold teeth, explained that the old woman she had been taking care of had passed away the month before and she lost her job.
"So, here I am in Piazza Amendola again. It is kind of a nightmare starting again," she said. "The only positive thing now is that I got a two-year living permit."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/30/010.html