South Ossetia: great-grandma Nadezhda sows the seeds of her own future
05-08-2011 Feature
Life is still difficult in the rural areas, but the ICRC is running a number of programmes to help people earn a living. These programmes include an agricultural assistance programme for people in remote and isolated areas of South Ossetia.
Nizhnyaya lies in Lower Okona, just ten minutes away from the district centre of Znaur/Znauri. Most of the population is elderly, and they need new ways of generating an income. We arrive at the dilapidated village bus stop to find the villagers already waiting for us. No buses have stopped here for years, but this is the village meeting place.
75-year-old Nadezhda came to the village in 1952. Her daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren live in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. After her husband's death in 2010, Nadezhda chose not to go and live with her daughter – she could not contemplate leaving behind her big house and all her possessions. Now Nadezhda shares her house with a relative of her husband who has no family of her own.
The two women are glad of the agricultural assistance they receive from the ICRC, as growing fruit and vegetables is the only source of income for people here. Like the other participants, Nadezhda has received seven types of vegetable seed and 50 kg of seed potatoes, enough to bring in a healthy crop of vegetables in a few months’ time!
