Elisabetta Cociani
Eldar, from the series "Svetlana"
Svetlana's grandson watching TV
June 2011
Series Statement: Svetlana is a Russian woman who came to Italy nine years ago to work and give her dear ones a better future. It has been a difficult decision: she had to leave her family and a good job at the ministry, yet her income wasn’t enough. She was born in Kazakistan and at 18 moved to Adighezia Republic, her father’s land.
I met Svetlana, in 2009 in Ferrara, the Italian town she lives in and considers home. She works as a caregiver and she is the president of “Nadiya Caregivers Association”.
In June 2011 I went with her to Majkop, her former home. I met family and friends, I went to the village where her father lived and the places she’d been working in, and where everybody misses and loves her.
I don’t think she will ever go back, she loves Italy, she loves cycling around Ferrara streets and now that her son Vitali joined her there, she has a reason more to stay.