Suzanna's journey from dilapidated barracks to her own flat

Suzanna had to learn self-reliance from childhood: she is disabled and has endured several operations, a childhood in shelters, the death of her mother, life in a dilapidated barrack block and a long battle for compensation for her housing. Now 26, she seems to have turned her life around — she even has a flat of her own, though it is not quite suitable for comfortable living. Suzanna dreams of looking around and saying: «Wow, I«m home.» The Dedmorozim (Father Frost) charity has stepped in to help — her story 18 years ago marked the start of its work.

Suzanna is 26 now and recently moved into her own flat, which she bought with a mortgage. But throughout her life she has faced various difficulties. She has congenital multiple arthrogryposis, a severe disorder of the musculoskeletal system. Because of it, Suzanna underwent around seven operations as a child — doctors tried to restore mobility to her joints.

Congenital multiple arthrogryposis is a rare congenital condition in which a child develops persistent restricted movement in several joints because of improper development and insufficient fetal mobility. It may be linked to disorders of the muscles, nervous system or connective tissue, or to genetic diseases. Treatment begins in the first months of life and includes therapeutic exercise, joint mobilization, orthoses and, in cases of pronounced deformity, surgery.

The Perm resident walks unaided but more slowly than others. Her arms are also weaker than those of people without arthrogryposis. The Dedmorozim press service explained that Suzanna«s hands shake even when she lifts a stool. Even so, she is able to do everything for herself.

Suzanna grew used to independence in childhood — her mother did not fulfil her parental duties, so the girl periodically moved to live in a shelter.

«Suzanna«s mother could not cope, and the family did not have enough money to live on,» the charity told 59.RU. «Despite everything, Suzanna loved and still loves her mother very much. She allows herself only bright memories of her and is sad to tears that her mother cannot see how independent she has become.»

When her mother fell ill, Suzanna, still a schoolgirl, took charge of the household and at the same time cared for her relative. When she was 18, her mother died. The young woman was left to live alone in a dilapidated communal flat in a two-storey barrack block.

«The conditions were terrible, and the neighbours were alcoholics. I thought that was all I had…» she told charity staff.

Overall, Suzanna remembers little of her childhood — negative events and anaesthesia from operations took their toll. She remembers only that she loved to play, watch Disney cartoons and go for walks with her friends.

No one taught Suzanna how to protect herself legally — she did not know she could receive housing under the programme for resettling residents of dilapidated buildings.

The situation was complicated further because the barrack block where Suzanna lived was declared unfit for habitation in 2020, but was not included in the city resettlement programme until 2024, the charity says. But Suzanna was lucky — in 2021 an acquaintance told her that Dedmorozim could help, and she turned to the charity.

From that time until this summer, the young woman lived in a flat that the charity provides to its beneficiaries. She recalls the day she moved in with delight — she calls the home «a mansion» and still marvels that no one banged on the door while she was in the shower. In the kitchen of that temporary but first cosy flat, she cooked her first dish on her own — a curd cheese bake. That was also when she began training as a records management specialist and graduated in 2023.

At the same time, Suzanna had to fight for her right to compensation for the dilapidated housing. The charity«s lawyers helped her.

«There were so many courts, so many refusals… The building still had not been included in the programme,» the young woman recalls. «So much stress: travelling, filing claims, going back again. I no longer lived there, but orders for debt recovery for utilities kept arriving. I had to travel, get them cancelled, pay something. All that time I lived in the charity«s rented flats, constantly moving — the feeling that you could have a home of your own had already evaporated.»

The final court hearing was held in winter — Suzanna was offered 2,150,000 rubles (about $27,000 at current rates). Together with her lawyer, she decided to take the money, fearing that if she waited for resettlement she might be given a communal flat like the one she had before. The money went towards a down payment — she bought a flat in a five-storey building.

«I never had a big flat of my own: a living room, a bedroom, a play room,» she reflects in conversation with volunteers. «And now I really want to feel that this is truly my home, to invite guests. To do everything the way I want: beautiful but not too flashy, with a sense of home comfort. So that I walk in and say: „Wow, I«m home.“»

Once again the Dedmorozim charity has offered to help her with this wish. Volunteers are raising money to renovate her flat — 800,000 rubles (about $10,100 at current rates) is needed. Another 700,000 will be covered from the charity«s funds. Because of her health problems and her height of 134 centimetres (4 ft 5 in), Suzanna needs a specially adapted home, and she simply wants to make her home cosy.

Alongside making over her first flat, Suzanna works — she handles document flow at a large enterprise in Perm.

«I want to go to the cemetery to see my mother and tell her the news,» Suzanna said, tearing up: «that I live on my own, that I can bake pies and cheesecakes, that I«ve got three cats and I»m no longer afraid they«ll run away. That I want a family. It»s a pity my mother won«t see it.»

In her free time, Suzanna plays computer games and reads anime comics. She also sometimes donates what help she can to the Matroskin shelter.

Incidentally, Suzanna«s story marked the beginning of Dedmorozim. In 2008 the girl underwent leg surgery, but with no home in which to recover she ended up in a shelter. At the time she was struggling with being separated from her mother and with the aftermath of the operation.

The head of the shelter described the situation at the city forum Teron and suggested supporting Suzanna by fulfilling her simple wish — to give her a doll, since she had had few toys as a child. Dmitry Zhebelev responded to the request, and in the course of their correspondence he and other Perm residents came up with the idea of fulfilling the wishes of other children in orphanages too.

That is how the New Year campaign Dedmorozim was born: volunteers collected children«s letters to Father Frost, and caring Perm residents helped make their wishes come true. Later the volunteers decided to raise money for a girl battling cancer, but the funds went to her parents» cards and an acquaintance of the family stole part of the money.

After that it became clear that transparent charity required a legal entity. That is how the Dedmorozim charity came into being, and its current directors, founders and administrators are the very volunteers who once decided to help several children from an orphanage.