Elderly people in Romania's deserted villages, between hunger and hardship: "I can go to bed without eating"

In Romania's increasingly depopulated villages, the elderly left behind face a daily struggle to secure the bare necessities. With little or no income, many are forced to choose what food they can afford and what they must go without.

"If I have food, I eat. If I don't, I go without"

For some of the elderly living in rural areas, a daily meal has become a hard-won luxury. One man recalls an evening when he had absolutely nothing to put on the table and had to turn to an acquaintance for help: "One evening, I had nothing to eat. Nothing! I spoke to a woman and asked her to bring me a kilogram of cheese."

Rising prices are forcing many to cut back even on the amount of bread they eat each day. "Instead of eating a whole loaf a day, I eat half a loaf," the man says.

Shopping on a shoestring: two potatoes, a tomato, two onions

Hardship is felt even when it comes to the most basic of foods. Another elderly resident describes how difficult it has become to buy even the simplest staples: "It gets harder day by day — to find yourself buying two potatoes, a tomato, two onions." For those on low incomes, every purchase is calculated against what they can afford that particular day.

"I can go to bed without eating"

Poverty is pushing some elderly people into situations that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. "I can go to bed without eating," one of them admits, whilst another sums up his reality in simple terms: "If I have food, I eat. If I don't, I go without."

A lifetime of work, with no right to a pension

Among those remaining in depopulated villages are people who worked for years but receive an inadequate pension — or no pension at all. "I have no right to a pension... no contributions were made on my behalf to allow me to retire," one of them recounts.

Despite their hardships, many try to manage on their own, just as they have done throughout their lives — working their land, keeping animals when they are still able, and producing some of the food they need themselves.

Their stories shed light on a less visible reality in Romania's rural communities, where the population is ageing and where, for those who remain, each day can mean a struggle for food and survival.