![\"Moldova](\"http:\/\/sparkexperience.com\/projects\/adra\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/Moldova-SPB.jpg\")
<\/a>This little boy is excited to see his mother in prison. Clowns and balloons made the day extra special for him.<\/p>\n
Also, there are guards with guns.\u00a0 Real guards.\u00a0 Real guns.<\/p>\n
This festival, which seems like any other, has one significant difference: it is held within the walls of a women\u2019s prison.<\/p>\n
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the stability of Moldova toppled with it, causing the economy to fall and unemployment and crime to rise.\u00a0 Through it all, the children suffered most.\u00a0 Many kids, some no more than toddlers, were abandoned.\u00a0 They had to struggle for survival in any way possible, often living in the streets and sleeping in alleys. For these children, ADRA provides a home full of love, safety, and three balanced meals every day.\u00a0 But for the countless others whose mothers are incarcerated, a home isn\u2019t always enough.\u00a0 Many of these little ones even have relatives who care for them, or friends of the family who adopt them as their own, but growing up without a mother\u2019s love and affection is a difficult and lonely loss of one\u2019s childhood.<\/p>\n And so ADRA organized a festival, because no child should have to hug their mother in a drab visitation room.\u00a0 A few guards and a gaggle of delighted volunteers later, and the festival is actually a festival, a real fun-and-games kind of festival.<\/p>\n<\/a>
Children at the Rainbow of Hope Children’s Center pose with the crew after shooting for “A Closer Walk.”<\/p>\n