A Russian Fairytale
Irina was born into an alcoholic and abusive family. Her mother was sent to prison when Irina was small and she grew up with her father, who neglected and abused her from a young age. When she was in her early teens, Irina was taken into institutional care, as her father was deemed unfit as a parent. Irina struggled to come to terms with her new life in an orphanage and regularly ran away. As a result she was regularly placed in a psychiatric hospital for treatment, which only agitated her frail mental condition and resulted in her running away more frequently. In 2004 she was given a year long sentence in a juvenile detention centre and was released after her graduation date at the orphanage. As a result she went straight back to the streets and has been there ever since.