Dumitru is 12 years old. He lives with his parents, Nicolae and Aurica and his three siblings, Mihai, Alexandru and Elena.
Dumitru is Roma and he lives in the slums of the city. His father is a street cleaner and he earns approx. £155 a month. Dumitru's mother is mentally ill and epileptic which means she is unable to work. Almost all of the money earned by Dumitru's father is used to pay for his mother's medication. While Dumitru and his brothers go to school, his sister stays home to look after his mum. Dumitru's father works extra on Saturdays so that the family can pay for electricity and food but during the winter months he cannot work extra hours. This makes winters especially difficult for Dumitu and his family.
The children love to help their parents and they dream of having jobs when they will be grown-ups. Dumitru wants to become a forester, Mihai wants to be a driver, Alexander wants to build houses and Elena wants to become a doctor - to help her mother get well.
Dumitru is a very diligent and hardworking boy. He wakes up in the morning and washes his face outside in a bucket, because they don't have a bathroom. Then, he eats what he finds and sometimes, he doesn't eat at all because they didn't have the money to buy some food the day before. Many times the children eat only the bread and the milk they receive at school and many times that is the only meal they get in a day.