Grigore and his four children live in an unfinished house along a muddy, unmade road in a small village in Moldova. The cement floor is covered with rugs to keep it warm and the bare walls are cement grey. This Christmas two family members will be absent: Grigore's wife died just a month after the death of their baby boy.
Victorita, his eldest, is only 12, but she has become like a mother to them all. "Victorita has had a hard time of it," says Grigore, "but she gets them dressed and ready for kindergarten as well as herself."
When the children's mother was still alive she oversaw the home, giving Grigore the opportunity to find better paid jobs is Chisnau, the capital of Moldova. Now he is a single parent he has to work locally. "I can't go anywhere now," he says, "The children are too little, they need me. At the moment I'm working on construction in the village."