Near Rybnitsa, deep in the wilderness of Transnistria, there is a Rehabilitation Center for drug addicts. This place, hidden behind hills and pine forests, looks more like a farm: a two-story house, several barns, and livestock pens. But in reality, it is home to people who have lost themselves—former drug addicts, alcoholics, and those with nowhere else to go. The center was founded by Alexander Rusnak, a man who himself walked the path from addiction to faith, from street life to leading a community striving to save others.
There are no doctors or medications here. Those who arrive endure withdrawal on their own, without painkillers. The workday begins at 5:30 AM with prayer and Bible readings. Then everyone disperses to their tasks: some herd sheep, others chop wood, and the women prepare food and care for the children. Alexander believes that keeping busy is the best way to resist temptation. Those who stay gradually transition from physical dependence to spiritual cleansing. The defining moment in this process is “water baptism”—the point at which a person officially becomes part of the religious community. Until then, they receive no money for their labor, living solely off the center’s resources.
The residents’ stories are different, but they all share a past where hope no longer existed. Grisha, a 62-year-old former convict, has spent 28 years in prison for killing his wife. He was the center’s first resident, and his life has been a cycle of leaving and returning. Then there’s Misha, who, two years ago, was in the terminal stage of cancer but survived against all odds. Now he wants to buy a house in a nearby village and start a family but remain connected to the center. There are women with children who fled poverty and abuse, men who have lost their place in the world, and Alexander, who believes he can give them a second chance.
Once a week, Alexander takes his residents to a church service in Rybnitsa. Among the crowd of worshippers, they are easy to recognize—their gazes are focused, their attention different from the others. When the service ends, they gather at the entrance, get into Alexander’s car, and return to the home hidden beyond the borders of the familiar world—the place where, for them, a new life begins.
