Roza Muzaeva Роза Музаева

"When we started working, there were explosions going off in the city all the time. They set off charges when the military convoys were driving through. Sometimes we reached the spot where the convoy was passing through. Sometimes it happened to be in an industrial area where no one lived, several times they surrounded us, they said: 'Why do you help the Russians?' We had this category of people – at the time those were only old Russians. ‚Why are you helping them?‘ That was terrible. So we explained to them, then our guard talk to them, I begged them, then they let us go. One time they shot at us. We were driving along to distribute aid, and they shot at our car. Masked people with sub-machine guns came up to us. I begged them, I practically lay down under the car. There were lots of them, plus it was during the day. Ruslan jumped out of the car before it had even stopped, saying: 'Don‘t shoot!' They came up to us. I told them that we only help civilians, that we‘re not doing anyone any harm, I have children at home, don‘t kill us. He just shook his head, didn‘t say a word." (Q: "Was that a Chechen?") "Most likely. I spoke in Chechen and Russian, all the languages I knew. He didn‘t say a word, just shook his head and that was it. Then they let us go. When I was jumping out, I twisted my ankle and lost a shoe. We drove off in the direction of distribution. We were headed that way. I said: ‚Ruslan, come on, we‘ll deliver it,‘ because our car was fully loaded. He said: ‚What distribution, what distribution! They almost killed us here!‘ But despite that we reached our destination, gave out the things and returned home. But I didn‘t say anything at home, so they wouldn‘t be afraid. Ibragim came by and told on me at home. I didn‘t tell them anything at home, so they wouldn‘t be afraid, but he came and said everything. That kind of thing happened. Other times we‘re driving along like normal, then up we come to where they just blew up the road, soldiers sitting in the trenches, sometimes shooting at us. We had it all, it was hard."

(Q: "When did you start working with Madlen?") "In 2002 we worked with refugees that were hiding away in cellars. One of them was this young woman. She came to me and asked: 'Does anyone want a baby? I don‘t want it. If no one takes it, I‘ll leave it lying in the cellar. It‘ll be born in a few days.' I went home thinking about the small child, about how it was possible for the mother to consider leaving it somewhere… I knew I myself couldn‘t take in the child. As I was walking, I met my neighbour, Agaeva, an old classmate from school. I told her there was one little baby whose mother couldn‘t look after it and was going to leave it in the cellar. She said immediately: 'I‘ll take it! Don‘t look any further, I‘ll take it.' She lived together with her father in a ruined house. She came to me at my house later on and said: 'I told Father, and he agreed that we should take care of the child.' The next day I went to work, the girl came up to me, she had already given birth, and she said: 'The baby is in the cellar. If anyone wants it, they should take it.' I wrote down her address, drove to Agaeva to discuss once more what she wanted to do. After all, a child is not a toy that you can take and then discard when you don‘t want it anymore. But she insisted she would take the child. So we had a nurse accompany us and we went for the child. The nurse checked her and really, she seemed to be healthy. It was not until three months later that we found out that the child was disabled. It couldn‘t move its legs, it just lay there. Thanks to Berkat it received help twice. They paid for the operation at an expensive clinic. The girl is beginning to walk and has just started learning to talk. Many thanks to the Berkat organization for their help."