Waitrose, High Street, Nailsea Mon-Sat 9am-3pm
Interview by Paula Gombos Photo: Frankie Stone
ADELA DUMITRU, 55
I was told when I started selling the magazine that The Big Issue is for people affected by poverty who don’t have many possibilities open to them. I signed up with The Big Issue in 2014-2015 and I enjoy selling the magazine.
I’ve learned the numbers so I can give the right change and learned basic English so I can talk with my clients. I am on my pitch every day, apart from Sunday when I go to church.
I wake up at 5am every day. I make breakfast for my granddaughter, I prepare her uniform, pack her books and snacks. I wake her up, help her get dressed and do her hair. We leave the house at 7am and we have to change two buses to get to her school. During school hours, I sell The Big Issue.
The money I earn goes towards paying rent for the flat, buying food, clothes and books for my granddaughter, but it’s not enough to save money.
My granddaughter is the apple of my eye and I will do everything in my power so she can have a better future, a comfortable life that we’ve never had.
Her parents – my daughter and her first husband – did not get along and divorced. My daughter remarried a man who wanted to start his own family and didn’t want to look after my granddaughter. So I told her I’m not going to give up on my grandchild and brought her to the UK with me and raised her as if she were my own daughter. I took her in when she was little, now she’s in primary school. She doesn’t know her mum very well.
The Big Issue staff have helped me a lot and I am very grateful to them. When I needed to find a school for my granddaughter, Sue helped with the registration process and found a good school near my pitch. Besides this, Frankie is now looking into applying for permanent residency for my little one. They’ve helped me with gas/electricity vouchers so I can stay on top of my bills, and when I couldn’t afford to buy winter clothes for my granddaughter they stepped in.
I don’t have any future plans for myself; I am working hard so my granddaughter can have a better quality of life. I would like her to hav
