That’s how to die…

I can’t tell you her name, but I wish I could. Last Thursday Olya and I went to visit a young woman (22) at the city hospital who attempted suicide. She is a young Kazakh woman from Ulan orphanage who trained as a seamstress/designer at PTL (technical school), graduated and found a job. She then had what doctors decided was an epileptic seizure, lost her job, and has since been diagnosed with a severe mental disorder. She swallowed a needle because someone told her that’s how to die.

She’s not dead on the outside, but talking to her you see that death has taken what’s inside. She has no hope. She just begged us to take her away. She doesn’t eat or sleep and is wasting away before our eyes. She has no family and no friends. Her peers at the facility were she lives have offered her only scorn. Olya and I just spoke to her with words of encouragement and hope, even out of our own experiences. We went for a walk outside in the sunshine till she was too tired to walk anymore. And just twice her eyes lifted in hope and hunger during yesterday’s visit. The first was when Olya said we were looking for alternate housing and the second when Olya said she would be back the next day.

Interlink is working hard and fast to find alternate living for her, a place where she’ll be protected from herself and surrounded by people. We may, or may not succeed. We’re also trying to figure out ideas for work as no one will hire her following her seizure and diagnosis. There simply isn't a place for her in society right now.

Three weeks later: She is doing okay, still living at the Youth House. We've encouraged her and gotten permission for her to do some small tasks at the office, but she hasn't come. We are still very concerned so keep praying for her.