Zhodzina Resident: Authorities Are Just Waiting For Us To Starve To Death

What is going on in small Belarusian towns?

A subscriber from Zhodzina wrote about it to the press service of the European Belarus civil campaign. She told about the situation, faced by many Belarusians due to the coronavirus epidemic and inaction of the authorities.

"I live in Zhodzina, - she writes. - There have been problems with work here, a lot of people go to work in Minsk every day, I also used to go.

It's very inconvenient and wasteful, a lot of time, effort and money is spent to get to work and home, especially since we didn't choose the timetable, working 12 hours a day, three in two, so count how much time was left for me to even sleep.

In 2018, my dad had a stroke, he was paralyzed and I had to look for a new job.

I was lucky, the new employer was a good man, he showed understanding. I worked as a construction materials salesman having two higher educations. My salary became less than in Minsk, even taking into account that I didn't spend on daily moves and so on.

As a result of the coronavirus epidemic, the supplies of goods to our firm stopped, people started to come less and we suffered a loss in March. At that, we had to pay rent and salaries.

The firm went on "vacation" from mid-April, first I got sick, then another girl, then our accountant. However, they decided to go on vacation not for this reason, there was just no other way.

I quit, because it is unknown when the firm comes to life. Now I have no job.

The problem is that it just isn't here, the job. It is problematic even to find a job as a janitor in Zhodzina, so as not to starve to death, and I have a handicapped person who needs 24-hour care and medicine.

There are social services, but today they can do more harm than good. Sometimes I get a little extra work, and I don't know how long we can last. The authorities do not care about people like us, they just wait for us to starve to death.