What makes it different - is that they asked me to help. And now I'm asking you.
Topala is mainly populated by the very old and the very young. Most able-bodied adults have left the country to look for work in Italy, Spain or Israel, leaving their children in the care of their grandparents. As there are no factories or offices within 30km, the residents rely on farming as the sole means of feeding themselves and earning a living, but the average post-privitization farm has no more than 4 acres divided between vineyards, orchards and grain fields (wheat, field corn, and sunflowers). Moldova's rural poor survive by growing and canning their own vegetables, raising an slaughtering their own livestock, and helping each other when they can. The average pensioner receives 300 Moldovan Lei (less than $30 USD) a month, although the poverty level is at 500 Moldovan Lei per month, which makes feeding and clothing their grandchildren nearly impossible without selling some of the limited produce grown to feed the children in the first place.