Natasha
is in bed. She smiles warmly and welcomes you to the house that
she and her husband renovated last summer. There is a wheelchair
in the corridor but Natasha cannot use it yet because she cannot
sit up.
A year ago, Natasha, 29, took her seven year-old son Tamik for
his first day at school. She had meant to leave her two young
daughters at the kindergarten but there was a power cut and
she took them with her.
All four were taken hostage less than an hour later. “It
was like one long horror without days or nights,” remembers
Natasha. “I was afraid for my children. It was difficult
for them to sit still in the crowded gym.”
Having never been to school, Tamik thought he was being punished
for bad behaviour. “Tell them I will behave myself, mum,”
he whispered to her. “I swear.”
Natasha was seriously wounded as the siege came to an end. She
has a deep wound in her head, injuries to the spine and shrapnel
in her neck. Most of her body is paralysed. She was in a coma
and hospitalised in Moscow for six months.
“I am better now,” she says. “I can move my
hands a little and I will stand up. I will.”
Aslan, Natasha’s husband, has had to give up his job as
a lorry driver to look after his wife. She asks him to help
her sit and he gently lifts her fragile body on to the sofa,
adjusting the pillows on both sides.
The family are living on their savings, her mother-in-law’s
pension, the state donation to former hostages and Red Cross
support. Natasha came home from hospital in March 2005. It took
another two months for doctors to legalise her disability so
that she would be entitled to a state pension.
She still badly needs rehabilitation. “Everything is expensive,”
she says. “I got my treatment in Moscow free from the
state but nothing for free any more I understand.”
Natasha is not alone, but she and her family need support. They
are one of 200 families benefiting from the permanent home-based
psychological support provided by the Russian Red Cross visiting
nurses service.
“When I returned from hospital, too many people came to
film and interview me,” she remembers. “Some I didn’t
even know and it was tiring. Now it has all stopped, all forgotten.
Larissa from the Red Cross still comes. That is a sign to me
that someone remembers. We chat about life with her and I know
she can help when nobody else is around.”
While Natasha is speaking, her mother-in-law, Nina, sits choking
back tears. Her sister and another granddaughter died in the
siege. As she shows us to the door, she explains: “Life
was easier when Natasha’s mother was here to help but
she died 40 days ago. Aslan must find a job but then I will
not be able to move Natasha myself.”
According to a study carried out by the Russian Red Cross, a
third of the 578 affected families still need on-going home
care and psychological support to overcome the mental and physical
scars of the tragedy.
As well as the visiting nurses and computers, the Russian Red
Cross has provided funds to improve facilities at the central
Beslan hospital. The Red Cross has also opened a community centre
where some 400 people can attend classes, do sport and other
social activities, and receive psychological support.
A year on from the tragedy, the Russian Red Cross has a list
of individuals and families who continue to need help. Staff
will work with them to meet their mental and physical needs.
|
 |
 |
|
|
Larisa
Solaeva, a nurse from the Russian Red Cross, visits Natasha
weekly. She provides psychosocial support and helps in
the house. Some 300 people are under the care of the Russian
Red Cross nurses until the end of the year. (p13201)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Natasha's
younger daughter Adelina (3). All the children are very
nervous, frequently wake up at night and are afraid to
go out of their house to play with other children.(p13202)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Tamik,
age 7, with his favourite teddy bear, that he received
as a humanitarian present in September. He did not know
what school was and mistook everything that happened as
punishment for his bad behaviour. (p13203)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Natasha
and her three children (Tamik 7, Diana 5, Adelina 3) were
all taken hostage. Having lived through the siege, they
all survived, but Natasha received serious injuries.(p13204)
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Natasha
with her youngest daughter Adelina. (p13205)
|
|
News
