ÅSA SJÖSTRÖM, SWEDEN
MOLDOVA: BORN IN THE BORDERLANDS
In Moldova, the poorest country in Europe, childhood looks like it might have looked in Western countries in the 1950s. Scooters on dusty roads, roller skates that look like they were bought in an antique shop, children playing with tires and chasing rats. Lots of brothers and sisters on the sofa.
And their parents? There’s hardly another country in Europe that saw so many mothers and fathers leaving to make a living abroad. Some villages literally turned into ghost towns with closed schools and barred windows. And since the Russian occupation of Crimea, people in Moldova are afraid that Russia could also extend its influence to their country. Just as it already happened with the breakaway republic of Transnistria.
© Åsa Sjöström/Moment
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A childhood in the villages of Moldova: according to UNICEF estimates, this means that more than 150,000 boys and girls have to grow up without their father or mother. And even during moments of joy, everything seems to be wrapped in a faint veil of melancholia.
Since 2003, Åsa Sjöström, born in Gothenburg in 1976, has worked as a freelance photographer for various newspapers. She is a member of Moment agency and lives in Malmo.
Curriculum Vitae: Åsa Sjöström (Moment Agency)
