The loud cry of a 2-year-old baby saved the family from a painful death in the fire! “Thank you, God, that you touched my Mariam with your hand and woke her up!” - the mother of a large family says, - “this is a real miracle ... We were a couple of minutes away from a terrible death - to burn alive - and then ... This loud cry of my baby was like the sound of a fire siren!!! We were already poor then, and now ... Now our whole life has turned into a heap of ash and ruins! "

- There are many of them, I saw it myself! And we have holes in the walls, what if a snake crawls into the house and bites us?! - says 10-year-old Bachuki with his eyes wide open. He and his brothers - 4-year-old Gegi, 2-year-old Dato, 13-year-old Mate live in a wooden dilapidated shed, which cannot be called a house! “It's terribly cold here in winter and hot in summer. Moreover, the house is in such a state that it’s about to collapse! - Izo (36 years old), the mother of four wonderful boys, cries and shows us the walls of the falling down shed "insulated" with cardboard where they have to live. - The walls are rotten through! But what can we do? We don't have enough money even for food.

“She has become very rude - the younger children are afraid of her... Soon she will start yelling at me too. I'm so afraid of that” - says Shorena in tears. She is a single mother of three little children. Anastasia will soon be 2 years old, Mamuka is already 5, and Nino is 15! Yes, you heard right, there are three kids in the family! And Nino is the youngest. Even though her body is of a grown adult, her mind remains of a little child. She is a beautiful young girl who is not adapted to real life at all. So, her mother pays more attention to her than to Mamuka and Anastasia.

“I've never tasted anything tastier! Do you like cakes? " - 6-year-old Vakhtang asks me with curiosity, standing by the entrance of a wretched ruin, looking like a bombsite. “Do people really live here? - I ask to myself, and answer out loud to the kid: - Yes, and what else do you like to eat?” - “Semolina and pasta ... Mommy does not cook anything else. And I dream of a cake! Please come in, don’t be afraid!"

“When they start chirping in six voices, like chicks asking for food, my heart bleeds. And I have only one dream - to give them food! That's all ... I dare not dream of something else ... We just want to eat. " It is difficult to write about hungry children on holidays, when housewives in all houses cook, set tables, and there is a lot of food... Maybe not everything will be eaten, a lot of food will be thrown away ... And at the same time, you are writing about a family where six children are malnourished, wear rags, and their biggest dream is to eat full. "Wouldn't we have to starve tomorrow if we eat an extra piece of bread today?" - this is their main problem.

Santa has never come to 7-month-old Ernest, 4-year-old Luka and 7-year-old Damian. How to explain to the kids why? And why does Santa come to the children of shameless officials of the Ministry of Health, who “forgot” to allocate money for the treatment of the 4-year-old sister of these angels, and she died in terrible agony in the arms of her poor Georgian mother from another epileptic attack. A terrible grief!

“Mom begged him and tried to cover herself with her hands when my father attacked her with an ax,” recalls 12-year-old Nia, and bitter tears start rolling from her eyes. A terrible tragedy happened in the girl's life. Her own father hacked her mother to death with an ax right in front of her! The girl was only 5 years old then ... And how can she live with this pain in her soul, with this insane horror that has settled in the child's heart since that day?! “My husband and I did everything for Nya to have a family, so that this pain in her heart would subside. Of course, it will not be forgotten and will not pass completely, but the girl must feel that we are near, that we love her. It's scary to even think what she had to endure! "- sobs Tamuna (30 years old). It was she, the aunt of little Nia, who took custody of the girl after that chilling event... Despite poverty and the fact that she has three children of her own, a real Georgian woman, kind, loving and caring, did

- 5-year-old Anano asks her mother plaintively and pulls her by the hem. “I am hungry too! Mommy, do we have any bread?" - echoes her younger brother Shotiko (3-year-old). "Wait a little, honey, maybe the neighbor will bring us something," - mother Gvantsa (29 years old) replies affectionately and strokes her kids’ hair. “The fridge is empty, I can’t calm them. I’ll have to ask the neighbors again,” the young woman explains us sadly, as if justifying herself. I turned away to hide my tears and confusion. “Lord, I will endure any torment, just not to see my children starving!” - the poor young woman cries bitterly. “We used somehow to make ends meet, but now we cannot find any work, and the transport does not work ... Sometimes the day goes by so that the children have only tea without sugar and bread!”

Even at Christmas they will be hungry and cold. When delicious smell of roasted piglet and fresh pastries comes from their neighbors, they will just take some bread, close their eyes and imagine how delicious it is ... They are used to it, they always do like that. One can endure hunger and cold... But what then? Who will these children be when they grow up? What will they become if they don’t have any childhood?