Tajikistan 2015 09

Pokiza

Pokiza is 18 years old and is living with her paternal grandmother Khosiyat who brought her up. When she was born, the parents argued constantly, and the mother decided to leave for a few months. When she came back, she could see that the child was different. "She said, 'I will not raise her, because she will be handicapped.' Then she left again," says Pokiza’s grandmother Khosiyat, who since then has taken care of her granddaughter. Pokiza’s father remarried, and although he lives next door to them, Khosiyat and Pokiza are left to themselves. "Until she was six years old, she could not walk or speak. But now she has learned both. We help each other with laundry and cooking," says Khosiyat. Sometimes another daughter-in-law helps them with cooking, but otherwise no one is taking care of them. A few weeks ago Khosiyat felt that she was becoming gradually weaker. "I lay in bed for 14 days, and there I started to think seriously about what will become of little Pokiza. I could assign her to a home for elderly people in Penjakent town. But then there will be no one to take care of me. And if I suddenly die, I do not know what will happen to her," says Khosiyat with despair in her voice.

Khosiyat has now shared her problems with the parent support group established by Mission East. It is not the first time Khosiyat asks the group for help. Until recently Pokiza got a small pension, but it suddenly stopped without explanation. Khosiyat told the group about the problem and they contacted Mission East’s lawyer. And now Pokiza gets her pension again. Also this time, the group is ready to help. "Now we will gather the family and the lawyer for a meeting. The father must be told that he is legally obliged to provide for his daughter, and the stepmother must know that it is illegal to beat Pokiza," says Fatima, a member of the parent support group and herself the mother of a child with disabilities.