My name is Eva

I am 37 years old and I come from Sweden. Denmark has been my home for 10 years.
I moved to Copenhagen to live with my Danish boyfriend, whom I had met in Sweden, and we moved in together in his apartment. My boyfriend hung around a group of people, who liked to drink a lot of beers and smoke some hash. When he had had a little too much to drink, he often became very jealous and violent.

As the months went by I became more and more afraid of him. One time he hit med so hard that one of my friends had to take me to the emergency room. Two of my ribs were broken and my face was all beaten up. My Friend wanted me to leave my boyfriend, and that I could stay with him instead. But my friend also smoked a lot of hash, and I felt relief and peace when I smoked hash, and I started using drugs more and more – also cocaine and soon heroin too.

I was living off my incapacity benefit, but the amount of money I spent on drugs was huge, and soon I never had enough. I couldn’t find another way of making that amount of money, than by becoming a prostitute. But there was never enough money, and my friend and I kept fighting over rent and money for food, so eventually he kicked me out.
Now the streets were my home.

I don’t want to go back to Sweden – Copenhagen is my home now. I don’t have any family or friends to return to either.
Most of the friends I have are living in the streets too, and we help each other out. I almost never stay in shelters, because the small rooms and the many people there are frightening me. I try to sleep at friends’ apartments when I can, but otherwise I have my sleeping bag and I sleep in parks, on benches or in stairways.

My abuse of drugs is still a problem, but I to keep it low because it is so expensive. My biggest problem is still money, and I spend most of my time begging in the streets.

Sara - a student in Social Work, has written the life story for each of the sculptures made so far. She has based the descriptions on the lives of foreign homeless people in Copenhagen.