Reykjavík Grapevine - 04.04.2008, Qupperneq 39

Article | Reykjavík Grapevine | Issue 04 2008 | B15
Most of them sniff glue or paint to keep the
hunger pains away and many use hard drugs to
escape reality. The toughest street children only
live until about the age of seventeen, he says.
“They are always on the run and just take
one day at a time. Life [on the streets] is worth
nothing. They are often murdered by fellow street-
gangs. They are sold to sexual slavery. They are
kidnapped and their organs removed and sold. In
this world, it isn’t like someone is going to report a
crime or that the police will investigate cases like
these. If a child is found dead on the street, noth-
ing is done about it. No one cares.”
Sold into Sex Slavery
Many of the kids work as prostitutes and the child
sex industry, controlled by the mafia, is extremely
harsh in Ukraine, Tjörvi explains. Trafficking and
sexual exploitation of homeless children is wide-
spread, and a growing number of kids are HIV
positive.
“People might think this won’t have any
consequences, but HIV in Odessa is considered
to be one of the largest HIV problems in Europe.
All the kids I worked with in Odessa, for example,
are HIV positive. I had to teach them that it wasn’t
enough to clean the needles with cold water after
they had injected themselves. That was something
they didn’t know and had therefore transmitted
the disease to each other, around 30 to 40 chil-
dren. Odessa is one of the biggest tourist spots in
Ukraine and many children from Odessa are sold
into the sex industry across Europe. They more or
less all have HIV,” he says.
Tjörvi adds that the majority of people close
their eyes to this problem. “There are lots of rich
people in Kiev. That doesn’t change the fact that
no one gives the children anything. They are
looked at as the scum of the earth. Not as children
the system has let down.”
He doesn’t have much respect for aid agen-
cies working in the country: “I could never have
imagined what a fraud many of these organisa-
tions are. Some mean well and try to help but my
experience is that most of them only use these
children to get funding. I don’t want to name
any names, but I’ve seen plenty of organisations
use the children to get more money. They bring
them in, give them food, take pictures of them to
post on their websites but throw them back out
on the street afterwards. Two employees working
for an aid agency in Ukraine quit their jobs after I
showed them how the situation on the streets re-
ally is. I have plenty of respect for the Norwegian
aid people though for doing a lot to help the chil-
dren directly. They hand out clean needles.”
Tjörvi says many of the children have be-
come sceptical towards adults. They know there
isn’t much hope of a better future as only a very
small percentage gets a second chance in life. “I
have a good friend, Victor, who got off the street.
I think it is mostly because he has such a great
sense of humour. He is a brilliant kid, extremely
funny. A family fell in love with him and took him
into their home. I met him again six months ago
and he has it pretty good. Miracles can happen.”
I ask if it’s necessary to get so close to the sub-
ject, as he has, to do a documentary of this kind:
“As I see it, there are two types of documentaries.
The ones more like news pieces where the film-
makers shoot for a month or so and then describe
the circumstances. Then there are documentaries
where the filmmaker starts to live the film. When
you do that, and get the subject to stop noticing
you or the camera, you can capture the real atmo-
sphere that will hopefully reflect through the film.
By now, the film has become the side issue to me
though. These children are my best friends today,
and that’s what it is all about. They have taught
me more about life than I could ever teach them. I
owe them a lot.”
Understandably, the experience has affect-
ed him a great deal. Asked how he has handled
this, to get so connected to the characters and wit-
ness this tragedy without giving up and leaving,
he responds:
“I’ve gone through that period. Today, I
would probably think twice, knowing how this
experience would fuck me up. No question. The
thing is, you get stuck. At first, you feel guilty. You
feel guilty about dining at a fancy restaurant af-
ter hanging with the kids in the sewers. Then you
start to lose touch with reality. Now I’m trying to
put myself back together again. Of course I want
to believe that this world will come to an end but
I’m also realistic. This is a very political and com-
plicated issue. But the kids deserve much more.
They have done nothing wrong. It is the system,
the economy and the parents that are to blame.
Not them. That this problem hasn’t been tackled
is outrageous.”
After the exhibition at gallery Startart, Tjörvi
will go back to the kids on the streets of Ukraine
to shoot the main parts of his documentary.
By Steinunn Jakobsdóttir
EXPECT
HANG
OVERS...
THE BIGGEST CLUB IN
DOWNTOWN REYKJAVIK.
LIVE MUSIC EVERY WEEKEND.
WWW.NASA.IS
10 SAVETA ZA DOBRO
DUŠEVNO ZDRAVLJE
1. Razmišljajmo pozitivno, lakše je
2. Vodimo računa o onome što nam je drago
3. Učimo dok god živimo
4. Učimo na vlastitim greškama
5. Krećimo se svakodnevno, to popravlja
raspoloženje
6. Ne komplikujmo život bez razloga
7. Trudimo se da razumemo i podržavamo ljude
oko nas
8. Ne odustajmo, uspeh u životu je trka na duge
daljine
9. Pronađimo i negujmo vlastite talente
10. Postavimo si cilj i ispunimo svoje snove