If Andrea wants to talk to her mother, her cell phone and Skype are the only options. That’s because Andrea’s mom lives several hundred kilometres away in Western Europe, where she works to support her family financially. Back in Romania, Andrea has to take care of her younger sister all by herself. Life Links reporter Sumi Somaskanda met the 23-year-old in the village of Raducaneni, where, according to UNICEF, around 15 percent of the children have seen at least one parent leave amidst the wave of labor migration.

When he was still a little boy, now 19-year-old Jean Claude would often ask who his father is. But his mother Beata, an ethnic Tutsi, could never answer his question. That’s because she was raped by several Hutu militiamen during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. The attack left her scarred and unable to love her son who was the product of this crime. Even today, both Jean Claude and his mother still struggle with the stigma and psychological damage. Life Links reporter Gönna Ketels met the two in a small Rwandan village.

When his father died, the world Robin knew stopped existing from one day to the next. His father was his mentor, the person he’d turn to. And as if the pain and the loss weren’t enough to deal with, Robin suddenly had to take over the the family business, even though he was still a student. The now 24-year-old tells Life Links reporter Jaafar Abdul Karim what it’s like to turn your life around and suddenly be responsible for more than 50 people.