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Chiara Negrello
Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, amongst European Union member states, Italy was house to one of many largest communities of individuals of Ukrainian origin. According to data from the EU, over 200,000 Ukrainian residents have been dwelling in Italy as of late 2020. This migration made them one of the crucial rooted overseas teams within the nation, largely composed of ladies employed in household and well being companies for the aged.
Photographer Chiara Negrello’s grandmother Lidia Maggiolo was considered one of them. In 2020, after spending a number of months within the hospital on account of COVID-19, when Lidia returned house, she was now not autonomous. For this motive, her household determined to rent Lyubov Mala, a middle-aged Ukrainian caregiver. The venture “Caring for our Past” begins in Negrello’s childhood house, the place she was interested in Lyubov’s decisions to reside and work in Italy.
Chiara Negrello
In March 2022, one month after the battle in Ukraine began, a part of Lyubov’s household lived at Lidia’s home. At that point, six folks from 4 generations and two completely different cultures have been dwelling in a small house in Rovigo, Italy. Cohabitation was not simple on account of completely different languages, habits and wishes. Living collectively was a collision in some methods, but additionally a solidarity encounter at a time of super struggling.
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
The career of caregiver is a low-paying job in Italy, although most individuals who apply have a great degree of training and plenty of have been certified employees earlier than emigrating. They expertise a piece expertise characterised by isolation, subordination, excessive depth of labor and emotional stress. Within the home partitions, many live-in caregivers are in shut contact 24 hours a day with the particular person they look after. The inevitable consequence of this circumstance is a negotiation of privateness, which on each side is a really skinny line. Caregivers are there on the aged particular person’s most susceptible moments: they modify them, wash them, feed them.
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
The caregivers expertise their employers’ properties as if they’ve all the time been a part of them, sleeping of their kids’s previous rooms and shifting from place to position as previous household images hold on the partitions watching their actions. However, they’re additionally compelled to compromise their private area, discovering themselves in an atmosphere they name “home” however that’s not fully correct. When they’re allowed to take a break from work, they proceed to sense the presence of the particular person they look after, and are on the alert if the particular person calls out, in want.
With the continuing battle between Russia and Ukraine, many caregivers have determined to remain in Italy and help their very own households, financially, from afar. However, experiencing battle at a distance causes nice tensions that may additionally undermine the connection with the aged particular person they look after. They are sometimes nervous and have much less persistence, isolating themselves with their telephones and studying the information, shifting to different rooms to textual content or make a fast name.
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
The caregivers share their fears in regards to the warfare with the aged folks they look after, who empathize with them however are unsure what to say to supply consolation. Bedrooms turn out to be the live-in caregivers’ shelters, and though they’re locations the place they needed to adapt, as we speak they’re the rooms they’ve embellished and the place they really feel protected.
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
Caregivers’ days are punctuated by the cellphone ringing and the newest updates coming in from the various chats. Ukrainian girls all the time examine the areas the place Russia has attacked, for concern that their pals or household is perhaps affected. The caregivers are particularly involved in regards to the aged and kids near them, since they’re probably the most susceptible. They repeatedly write and name to make sure that all is effectively and wish to be up to date on something that occurs.
Familiar phrases come up when referring warfare or battle, reminiscent of invasion, borders, loss, compromise, withdrawal and irruption. In their very own manner, caregivers additionally expertise these phrases of their every day lives whereas caring for folks in an unfamiliar nation: invasion of bodily and emotional private area, negotiation between the 2 sides, lack of their intimacy and withdrawal from their homeland and household. They live by means of a warfare from afar and dealing with a battle inside themselves.
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello
Chiara Negrello is a documentary photographer primarily based between Italy and Southeast Asia.
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