Maria Dura holds her daughter, a baby girl just a few days old. The astonishing young mother has reached a certain celebrity status recently after she was arrested in Duisburg, Germany, along with two other Fiftyfifty vendors.
Maria -- who has no criminal record -- was forced to undress for a full body search. She was underage and was nine months pregnant at the time. Following this inhumane treatment she was arrested twice more, just days after her ordeal. She was only released when the street paper she works for intervened.
And Maria's story is not unique. Many of her friends have had similar experiences on the streets of Germany. She tells the story of one of her friends whose car was impounded by the police because some oil had leaked. He and his wife were homeless and had to sleep in the car. When it was taken away from them, they had nowhere to go.
"A total overreaction," an anonymous police source close to the street paper proclaims. The company who towed the car agreed that the action was "unnecessary." Maria's friends were left to sleep outside for three nights and had to pay 100 euros, which they could barely afford, for their car to be released.
But Maria doesn't dwell on the dark side for too long. Especially not since she has given birth to a beautiful baby girl, Andreea Paula. She smiles when she talks about her daughter, event though the joys of her birth were overshadowed by sorrows from the start.
Because of funding cuts Maria was forced out of a support home for young moms. She had to live on the streets until Fiftyfifty organized an emergency solution. The young mother now hopes to find a home for her little family so that Andreea Paula can go to kindergarten.
"I want her to go to a good German school and live a happy life," she says with a big smile.
Fiftyfifty now provides funding for Maria to complete a German language course, to ensure that she and her daughter have the best chance in life. But first, Maria plans for Andreea Paula to be christened. Hailing from a religious background, Maria and her husband are very excited about the upcoming ceremony.
With the spotlight on her and other Roma vendors, Maria admits she is tired of the bad publicity many tabloid papers have given to the story. Her usual happy tone is tinged with bitterness, recalling the press associated with her past arrests.
"There have been so many negative headlines," she says. "I just want to move on and focus on my lovely new family."