You still come?

All the lying sick cities of Barnaul pray to Polina and Ksyusha. Girls work in the local department of the Karitas patronage service

Help Karitas in Siberia help

"There! Wash!"

I try to breathe through the scarf, but so that it is not noticeable, I don’t want to offend the owner. The house is not good. The house is so bad that it smells of the stairs, we put on shoe covers, and we pack jackets in packages. The smell will still remain, and later, in the minibus, people will be suspicious. Thus smells of many years of mud, gloomy, abandonment. So the disease smells.

For several years, Lilia Dmitrievna, the mistress of the house, has been sick for several years. She sits on the couch, looks empty on the TV. The husband is fussing, Oleg Viktorovich, placing for us knitted stools. He cares for his wife, does what he can. Maybe he is not enough.

Lilia Dmitrievna from time to time shouts loudly: “Ha. Ha. Ha." The voice is unexpectedly clear, even young. “Well, again for her, she laughed,” says Oleg Viktorovich and strokes his wife on the shoulder. They lived together all their lives, live it together too.

Polina, the head of the Barnaul patronage service "Karitas", thin, with huge eyes and a blossom, sits down in front of Lilia Dmitrievna squat: "Well, will we swim today?" For the first time, a woman focuses her eyes and shows her hand to a wet dress. "And we will change, but what about it!" - Ksenia affectionately says, the second employee of the patronage service. Oleg Viktorovich throws up with his hands: "Well, I changed my mind five minutes ago!"

Girls from the Karitas patronage service lead Lily Dmitrievna to the bathroom : Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD Lilia Dmitrievna and Polina Photo: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD

Karitas takes care of Lily Dmitrievna for only a month, during which time she has already been bathed four times. Before that, the woman had not washed under running water for three years. When the fields and Ksyusha first put her in the bathroom, she was happy like a child. “I beat the water with her hand,” says Polina. - Even in a voice laughed! " Lilia Dmitrievna is worried, tries to rise, says: “There! There! Wash!"

“But he doesn’t speak to me at all, I was tired of her,” says Oleg Viktorovich. - As her second blow was enough, not a word. Only the girls are talking! " Girls deftly lead a woman to the bathroom, wash for a long time. From there, Polina's affectionate voice is heard and even like the voice of Lilia Dmitrievna herself. The sisters say that it is even easier for her to speak in water, the head clearses, movements are easier to coordinate.

Oleg Viktorovich is trying to convince me that they live well. "Look, what is our crop this year, the cellar is also full!" - In the room there are dusty cans with tomatoes and cucumbers in rows. Oleg Viktorovich himself is a disabled person of the second group.

- How did you grow all this, collected?

- Well, how ... I crawl on all fours, I was tired - I will lie in the garden, and then I collect again.

The doctor in the apartment of the two disabled people rarely happens, according to Oleg Viktorovich, "and as the second blow he broke it, he stopped so, he says, there is no point in it." The ambulance travels, once they took it to the hospital, only returned quickly. "We can’t do anything, old age." The social worker is not supposed to be - the second group of disability is considered a working one.

Purely washed, in a new nightie and with a towel on her head, Lilia Dmitrievna sits on a reset sofa. She strokes Polina's hands in pink rubber gloves. This is her contact with the world, she notices us when my bracelet and photographer’s watch touches. Lilia Dmitrievna's hands are cool and tender.

Ksenia, employee of the Karitas patronage service and Lilia Dmitrievna Photo: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD Girls from the Karitas patronage service are very attentive to their wards photos: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD

“There is absolutely no strength! - Suddenly she says in a clear voice and looks meaningfully, tenaciously. - Will you come? Come? "

Of course, Lilia Dmitrievna, they will come. They will come next week, and if necessary - two or three times. They will not bother the face with a scarf, cockroaches will not be frightened, they will bring a sticky tape to catch flies rushing into an abandoned apartment on it.

Polina and Ksyusha

Ksyusha hangs an announcement between the posters of the Spleen group, the creative evening of Hieromonkh Photius and the anniversary performance of the Tuvan group “YAT-Ha”. In Barnaul, a rich cultural life, there is little free space on the stand. Basically, Karitas is learned about the patronage service by mouth, but part comes by ads. I can’t breathe and calm down: “Fields, but such patronages are the most difficult, probably?”

Polina waves her hand in the mittens: “Well, what are you! Really difficult - this is a neurological department. " Two chambers with the most “heavy” were allocated in a local hospital. With people who are hopeless, who, most likely, will remain immobilized forever. It was assumed that the sisters would teach relatives to care for the sick, only often no one has no one.

Ksenia and Polina Photo: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD

Nobody turns patients in neurology, there are no functional beds, there are no drugs. Fields and Ksyusha feed those who cannot eat themselves, turn over, wip. This is not their task or their work, paid nurses of patronage sisters do not like. They suspect competitors, it’s hard to imagine that people are doing this just like that.

Both Ksenia and Polina have a medical education. Ksenia even has two. Polina worked on an ambulance, nothing work, he says, everything happened. Either they strangled a phonedoscope, then with a “rose” they threw from a broken bottle. Cockroaches or dirt, slowsmen and the smell do not scare them. They say that the wards become relatives somewhere on a third visit.

“Where to rush? The new leg will not grow "

“House 156! Oh, no, 165! Oh, I will meet you at the traffic light! "

Snowworms in Barnaul are higher than human growth, they also drive in a special way: in order to settle on a narrow road, you need to call into your pockets cleared to enter the house on the sidelines. At the traffic light, the figure looms in a green dress, waving his hands captivorously. This is Lena, we brought a wheelchair for her husband Paul.

There is really no room on the house, on the left of the tire fitting, where cars are smoke around the clock, on the right, a bar, unpretentiously called the "garage". A residential building resembles little, but in the middle a small door. Here we also wear shoe covers, but vice versa, so as not to apply snow on clean floors. Pavel and Lena rented this housing from local alcoholics recently, but Lena had already completely washed, scrapped, cleaned the uncomfortable room. Only on him was the pension of her husband. Previously, after renting, there were five hundred rubles, but now there is a salary Lenin, she got “on shawarma”.

- In the sense - are you doing it?

- In the sense - I clean up there. I am a janitor. I’m not afraid of any work, I shuttle, I worked as a saleswoman, sat with my children, cleaned up.

- Do you have your children?

- No, and I didn't want to. Where to give birth, here or something?

Pavel sits in a dark and stuffy room. The owner of the house robbed him from above with siding, but did not bother with the windows. The house shudders from each car passing by, the wiring is open, the wires are intertwined into a ball and hang from everywhere. There is a little light in the kitchen, but there it is dangerous to sit there: ventilation from the column does not reach the window, the pipe hangs in the middle of the ceiling, and the kitchen smells clearly of gas, the window is broken. There is nothing to change it.

Pavel photo: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD New Pavel prosthesis photo: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD

Paul does not have a leg, it was amputated due to diabetes, the second also begins to fail. The new prosthesis is monstrously crushing, rubbing, not allowing him to step on the leg properly. Ksyusha carefully examines the stump, crushes it slightly, teaches a man to do it on his own. “Look, there is swelling,” her fingers carefully run out of purple flesh, “if you knead, and then adjust the insert for the prosthesis, it should become easier.” The second leg is also out of order, Polina advises washing only with warm water, dry the foot, and not wipe it, and most importantly - so that there is not a single, even tiny snorka in the sock. Never walk barefoot. Take a doctor immediately if you are injured.

Lena approaches the sister of Maria, the head of the Barnaul Karitas, ingratiatingly says: “You know ... I know it is very awkward ... I wanted to ask ...” Now he will definitely ask for money, I think.

Lena asks for paint. She is upset that the walls are painted unevenly: "ugly, and doctors go to us, inconvenient!" Doctors, by the way, go at best on the third day after the call. Once they waited a week, the doctor came and said that there was nothing to rush to them, the new leg would not grow. Sister Maria promises to see the wallpaper left after the repair, asks if the help of gluing is needed. “What are you, I myself! - Lena is scared. She invites you to drink tea, joyfully repeats: - They recently gave us! A whole box! " Maria politely refuses and puts a package of flour on an empty kitchen table.

In a stroller, Pavel will be able to move around the house when it will be warm - to go outside. On the one hand, he must “pace” the prosthesis, on the other hand, not to endanger the sore leg. Where do not throw it - everywhere a wedge. But the stroller will give Lena the opportunity not to be afraid every minute, while she is “on shawarm” that Paul will fall, hurt, damage her leg, and even worse. The stroller is light and maneuverable, he will be able to go to the kitchen, there is, at least sometimes looking out the window. It’s hard for him without light.

We ask to take a picture, Pavel is embarrassed.

- I used to be such a handsome man, oooh! In the village, everyone stared at me, there was no end to the girls! And now what ...

Elena and Pavel Photo: Natalia Bulkina/Schschi for TD

Lena laughs. Paul is now an impressive appearance, the mustache is trimmed like a ruler. He screams:

- Len, well, you combine, people take pictures so that you have a beautiful one!

- Yes, she is already beautiful! - Polina and Ksyusha say vying.

- And who says that ugly?! The most beautiful in the world!

- You yourself are at least put on the prosthesis for decency! - says Lena.

To conduct us, Paul gets up heavily on the prosthesis, grimaces, but takes a few steps. "Girls, when are you to us again?" - Lena alternately with hope looks into the faces of Polina and Ksenia. The patronage sisters have been going to them for a year.

220 patronage.

140 issuance of rehabilitation funds.

6015 individual consultations.

9 trained social workers.

These are the statistics of only the Barnaul branch of the Karitas patronage service for 2016. In general, Karitas patronage services work in Ishim and Omsk, St. Petersburg and Saratov, Volgograd and Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk and Marx. The twelfth year, “girls” like Polina and Ksyusha, enter the houses of people who are exhausted and tormented by diseases, help them and their relatives, give hope and retain dignity. Line old people are fed in neurological departments of hospitals. They teach other people to care for correctly. Packs with diapers, pure diapers, walkers drag on themselves. They talk, comfort, look after, advise.

How much does such a job cost? For the state, apparently, this payment is overwhelmed. The state believes that it is enough to prescribe a few drugs, examine in the hospital and leave alone. There are few people 'things, “here is not an almshouse,” as they said in the department of social protection to one of the Karitas wards.

In Barnaul and Marx, Saratov and Volgograd once or two a week, hundreds of people are waiting for “girls”. Keep their number in the phone book. They live, knowing that they are not alone.

The year of work of ten centers of patronage service in all cities of Russia costs a little more than eight million rubles, and about Dean the day of work of the patronage sister costs 831 rubles . A small payment, which once a month will be drunk from your card, and Lilia Dmitrievna will not be slower, and Pavel will be able to at least sometimes go out into the street. Hundreds of people throughout the country will know - help will come. You will help, and help will come.