Maija Dubro is interviewed by Māris Liopa, director of the forestry and related industries portal zemeunvalsts.lv, and Pauls Rēvelis, editor of zemeunvalsts.lv.
Almost a year and a half has passed since our previous conversation*. In January this year, while preparing a piece on the still unresolved fate of the Sabile fire station, one or two Sabile residents said this: "Maija's work at the care home is a hobby." How would you view that comparison between work and a hobby?
The line between duty and hobby is thin enough, that is true. In April this year I completed 10 years of work at "Kalme". I started with the thought: "I will work a little, find someone to take my place and..." A person to whom this job (running the care centre) could safely be entrusted has now appeared; I know that he can do it.
The social care system we work in is, as is well known, not a simple one; you need a good guide to it. In ten years I have come to understand clearly that no day here is like another, nothing repeats itself, the work takes almost everything and literally draws you in. It is not an ordinary job from morning to afternoon (8.00-17.00). I work thinking about what the clients need and how, what can be developed, how we will work tomorrow and so on. If we are talking about the hobby the Sabile residents mentioned, I would call crocheting and the garden a hobby. At "Kalme" there is no hobby, there is serious and creative work; perhaps to an onlooker it seems that everything comes easily to me, but that is not the case at all.
You were already talking about possibly handing the reins over to a trustworthy person back in the spring of 2023. Where did you find such a person?
If someone comes for a shorter or longer conversation, introduces themselves and you talk with them a little, it is quite difficult to draw conclusions. For the most part I assess people at work — what their attitude is towards the task at hand and towards everyday practicalities. I have assessed more than one person, mentally fitting them to the manager's post, but... sooner or later the initial illusions faded. Neither education, nor age, nor experience matters that much; attitude does. At the moment, as I have already mentioned, a candidate has been found, I am introducing him to the system, familiarising him with it, and there is a thought and a conviction that, once the bureaucratic matters are sorted out, I have found a replacement for myself.
What is your cooperation with the municipality like? As is known, the care centre building is owned by the municipality. Given the serious changes in the municipality, is there a sense of stability?
You guessed correctly — the only thing we are 100% dependent on the municipality for is the lease of the building and the lease of the grounds. As a care service provider we hold a licence from the Ministry of Welfare. In this work you have to be part psychologist, part shameless, and you need broad knowledge in order to survive various times, which I have managed to do successfully so far.
In Talsi municipality things have gone very badly this year, they know it well at the council, I have told them so more than once. The unresolved question of the fire station, of the post office, the long-untouched question of a family doctor in Sabile and Abava parish... Who is responsible for all that? The municipality, which failed to act in time!
For example, we, a group of residents, reacted very quickly and sharply in Sabile to the news that the post office branch might be closed — we collected signatures, wrote to the Saeima, the Ministry of Transport and VARAM, and the closure plan was halted. In my view, the same should have been done on the questions of the fire station and the family doctor. On the latter, I see a fairly simple solution to the problem, namely, the doctor's practice needs to be split; that is possible and can be arranged. Why is that not happening? (On the day this interview is published, the doctor's practice has been fully staffed, and the new doctor has ambitious plans — we shall live and see...)
Talking to municipal leaders, we hear how important parish or town administrators are. Now residents' councils are also gradually taking shape...
Of course, the parish or town administrator is an important person who sees the situation on the ground. If the council does not listen to them and throws them out of the door, there is still the window; you are thrown out a second time — think about what to do next, because people have trusted you and you represent their interests at the council! For instance, on important matters I have achieved the necessary solution without intermediaries. Communication between Sabile residents and the former town administrator often went like this: "There's no money, what do you want from me?" Well, if someone said that to me, I would certainly turn around and walk away.
I assess the system as a whole. In my view, it suits the municipal council if administrators "work" on the ground, do not come to the council and do not ask for anything; moreover, the council does not really manage the administrator's work — it neither trusts, nor checks, nor supervises. The administrator is in the territory concerned and that is all; cope however you like. Why should an administrator stick their neck out (act and ask) if it does not matter to the council? We shall see what the new parish association administrations will be like, but I am fairly cautious...
As for residents' councils, judging by the situation in the town of Sabile and in Talsi municipality, they were not and are not particularly wanted or desired. Firstly, the nomination of candidates took place in summer (1 June – 1 August), there was only a municipal council decision on it, and no wider information was given out until mid-July — shortly before the candidate deadline they announced a meeting in Stende... Knowing this date, I invited people from Abava parish and Sabile to put themselves forward, we filled in the forms and "organised" candidates for the residents' council; I also put myself forward, because I believe I can make my contribution, as a large part of my life has been connected with work in local government.
Residents' councils could be an institution that the council might be a little wary of and even fear. It must be stressed, though, that it needs to be explained to people how and on what they will be voting.
In your view, what will the residents' councils that are elected be able to determine and influence?
Here I can draw on my legal education and knowledge, because I see a whole range of matters where the procedure — how things might happen — is not clear. It is important that the residents' council will have a mandate from voters and that both the parish or association administrators and the municipal council will have to listen to this council. I would add that the attitude I mentioned — "if there's no money, what do you want" — has created a certain passivity in people, which is very bad. If you see that nothing is happening, if you are not energetic enough, it may very seriously seem to someone that such work is pointless. People are pushed aside, time passes... and then they wonder why the will and initiative disappear. Residents' councils will not have it easy either.
Recently, visiting Lizums, we concluded that development in Gulbene municipality is happening in a comprehensible and purposeful way. In Talsi municipality the old, historical direction Rīga – Kandava – Sabile – Kuldīga has now been turned the other way round, and far too varied interests and traditions have been combined in one municipality — the Livonian Coast, the ports, the Kurzeme heartland, the Abava ancient valley and so on.
The residents of the large municipality have very different mentalities and spheres of activity, and language too: Mazirbe and Kolka are Livonian, the Ventspils folk speak their own language, we are also a little different... For example, at "Kalme" I see and feel very clearly the differences between people from various municipalities and parishes — in behaviour, in attitude and so on. We accept clients as they are; each of them has a large part of a life lived behind them, which we can neither change nor judge; we have to accustom them to the care home's system and adapt ourselves as well. The line — to rule or to understand — is thin enough.
What is happening with the expansion of "Kalme"? It seems that, given the demographic situation in Latvia, the development of this kind of institution is happening quite rapidly.
When it comes to developing the care home I am quite mad and there is no "fixing" me any more. We very much need larger premises, 62 people are waiting in the queue, and the queue is not shrinking. At "Kalme", as I have mentioned before, the costs are different (lower); we carry out many jobs by attracting project money, which allows us to reduce the cost of the service. Where elsewhere it is 1200 euros, for us it is 650.
I have already said that we have land: for the needs of the care home's clients we grow, process and use in winter our own vegetables and root crops. At the end of last year I noticed that on the road to Kandava an unfinished two-storey building, once built for a sewing workshop, had been standing empty for a long time (10-12 years). I spoke with the building's current owner, we commissioned a design to adapt the building for social needs, the design is ready and is being implemented. In the summer we put on a roof and ordered windows. We are creating a new "Kalme" branch with 55 client places.
We are looking for money to realise this ambitious idea at various institutions, we have tried to attract funds, but... "Altum", "BigBank" and SEB turned us down because... we are too small. How much money do we need? 100,000 euros and everything can move ahead faster. Yes, there is EU project money available that we can apply for, but... only if the first clients are already inside the building; for that to happen, we need the money now. Lenders are put off by small volumes, our good experience is not taken seriously. I have not stopped, there are further plans. I applied to take part in a meeting of entrepreneurs with representatives of the Bank of Latvia in Kurzeme (in Liepāja); I want to find out why there is such an attitude towards associations. It is important for me to understand it. I would suggest that the people who join associations are those who want to get something done, not just fly-by-nights.
"Altum's" attitude is very surprising, since this is about rural development and a social project, about demand and experience.
"Altum" only gives loans to limited companies and points out that we do not yet have anyone in the new premises. I turned to the Ministry of Welfare, where we again met with spanners in the works, concluding that there is no flexible approach in the attitude towards social services provided by associations. We could apply for a project in which quite decent funds are available, but... this project is not intended for us, who already have a building and need to finish it. Respectable financial resources are offered for realising (constructing) ready building designs, but the application conditions do not match the building we have our eye on at all. If I may put it this way, in "Kalme's" further development I am going round in circles, I go to one door, then another, I knock at the window and at the cellar door, but for now I cannot get inside. I am looking for various routes, hoping for good fortune and for a sympathetic ear. The money is there, but you have to work out how to get it, because it is not simple, while time passes and inflation does not stop.
Since last time, we can see that "Kalme" has a new colleague — a cat that feels quite at home in the manager's chair...
Last year we found an abandoned little cat, which we literally "repaired". Having recovered and gained strength, and very much wanting to stay with us, she wound affectionately around our legs. Now she has set herself up as a big boss — every morning she meets me, we have breakfast and only then does the working day begin. The cat has a character of her own; there are people she goes in to see regularly, others she will not set a paw near; one kitchen worker feeds her, and from another she will not eat even if begged. Of course, an animal is a good way for our clients to relax. We have invited canine therapy dogs to "Kalme", and they have visited us several times. The result was very good. For example, one of our clients had very painful legs; a dog came and lay on her legs for a good while... Whether that was the reason or not, she now complains considerably less.
As you can see, the Sabile care home "Kalme" is living, developing and thinking about how to fulfil its mission — caring for our seniors — to an even better standard.