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When we started to receive help from Hope now we lived in abject poverty, and were in a great debt to pay for our flat. Thanks to the help we received we were able to pay off the debt and were granted a subsidy until my youngest son became 15. We don’t receive any benefits now. We pay very high fees for public utilities, but we don’t have any debts now.
When the boys were schoolboys the support allowed us to buy fish, meat, juices and diary products. Because of the support I was able to buy clothes for the family in “second hand” shops. New clothes were very expensive. And we still cannot afford to buy new clothes but we are glad to have good quality clothes from England, even if they are used. The financial support gave us a chance to collect a good library for the boys and to buy a first “second hand” computer to draw them away from the bad influences of the street. And it worked, they read much more now and use the computer not just to play games but to learn new educative and developmental programmes. The computer we have now, was bought by Anton when he started working (he paid by instalments). With its help the boys could continue their study in colleges to gain a profession. (The older is a computer operator and adjuster, the younger is an auto mechanic and a driver). It is very difficult to find a job without a profession, on top of which the children have serious health problems. As they had technical education and good characteristics from college, they were taken to work at a filling station. Their salaries are £92.00 a month. Over the years of their work we have been able to buy a computer, a vacuum cleaner and a refrigerator.
We have a very difficult life, I was allowed to work part time for 18 years, but 2,5 years ago I had to leave my job because of health problems. Over the 18 years, I have been hospitalized to a psychiatric hospital 28 times (for 1-2 months periods). They used sometimes inhumane methods of treatment, gave me cheap medications that caused terrible side effects and now I have a whole bunch of diseases, besides my main disease (manic- depressive syndrome). All the help I receive from Hope Now (£30 a month) is spent for medications for me and my children. The older son Anton has chronic tonsillitis and cardiac insufficiency, the younger has chronic pyelonephritis and inborn bifurcation of a kidney. They both have neuralgia of head trigeminus.
We try to keep our head above water, pay utilities, limit ourselves in food, but because of Hope Now support we can survive. Our family consists of three people now, myself (Marina Pankratova) and two sons: Anton Gusak (22) and Roman Gusak (20). My husband Vladimir Gusak started drinking and we had to divorce. His daily aggressions to me and my children made our life together unbearable.
From all described above, it is evident that our family exists and can support our health somehow for many years just because of Hope Now, their work in the name of our Lord, and our sponsor from England. We express our great thanks and constantly pray for them and their families.
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