This is the story of a complete stranger. I bet you've never heard of me. Actually I bet that even 99% of the people in my own country haven't heard about me, no matter that I was announced the Man of the Year in Bulgaria in 2007.
My name is Hristo Atanasov. I was born 59 years ago and I'm about to reveal who I am and what I have been doing for the last 25 years.
Everything has started in 1993. By that time I had just launched a private recycling business in a Bulgarian town called Veliko Tarnovo. Centuries ago, this town was the Second Bulgarian Capital of the Bulgarian Kingdom. The situation is pretty different nowadays. Anyway, back to the story...
My usual day started early in the morning and after my regular morning routines I was sitting comfortably behind the wheel of my truck, going downtown and collecting the rubbish from all the containers. I had to carry it outside the town drop it off in the town landfill.
Soon, after I launched the business, a boy approached me and asked me if I can provide him with a job. I was already needed people to assist me, so I gave him what he asked me for. Surprisingly at the end of the day the boy came to me and said:
'I don't have a shelter for this night. I don't have where to go.’
I took a deep breath and stared at him. I had flashbacks of my childhood. And guess what, my parents were orphans. When I was a child, I heard hundreds of stories about all the challenges they had to overcome to establish their family.
I knew what misery is, so didn't have to think twice and told the boy that he could stay in my house. I gave him a room, provided him with food and soon he became a new member of our family.
Not long after that, another boy joined the family. It was almost the same story. So, I had two employees who were kicked out from orphanages.
Believe it or not, one year later my family extended to 36 people.
I bought two caravans to give them a shelter.
Soon we became one of the main recycling companies of the town. We also cleaned parks and accepted almost any kind of physical labor.
Our profit was spent on food, clothes and to satisfy other basic needs. It was a real challenge, however we were pretty happy – there was enough amount of opportunities at that time.
Years have passed and many of these boys have found ground under their feet. I mean, they got married, found better jobs and are currently living more or less what we call here “a normal life”.
One of the boys became major of a village. He was recently elected for his second mandate.
Another boy moved to the capital Sofia and is currently working for a big company.
There’s another boy who moved to Netherlands. I should mention him, because recently he started helping other people in need there. Pretty impressive for someone who didn’t have where to go at a young age..
We are now 2017 and for the last 24 or 25 years I haven’t stopped doing the same thing.
Some of you may ask: why Hristo? Why are you doing this? Don’t you have you own dreams to chase day and night?
I'm doing that, because I know what is to live in misery. I feel it as a responsibility. It’s probably because of all the stories I heard as a kid from my orphan parents. I guess that these stories have touched my heart so deeply that my future was almost predetermined.
And what’s better than an opportunity to help other people achieve their dreams?
I don’t need anything. I dream to leave these people something before I leave them.
Even though I'm an entrepreneur, I've never perceived money as something more than a tool that allows me to buy food and clothes for my boys.
We are born naked and we leave this earth in almost the same state. The only difference is the treasures we've collected in our hearts. All the gold, diamonds, real estate and so on we've collected will remain here..
My goal
Take a look at the pictures below. You’ll see construction materials. Some of them were bought and some of them were donated by one of our famous local architects.
My goal is to build few small mobile houses for 2 people. I believe I owe that to my boys. Currently we live in a big building which was Veterinary Clinic in the 1990s. We renovated the building in 2006 and it can host up to 35 people. The conditions aren’t something to be proud of, but it's our home now and it there is hot water in the house, enough beds and the Internet. There's enough food for each of the 22 inhabitants aged between 4 and 61 years.
PVC joinery donated by a local architect
Second hand tiles that we'll use for the roofs.
PVC Framed windows, also a donation from the same man
Wooden material
This is just an example of how one of the houses may look like. We would be happy to share the progress of the building process on Steemit
We should start building the houses possibly at the end of July. If you are able to spread the word about our project please do so. I saw some amazing things on Steemit and I decided that's worth sharing my story here. Over the decades I was in a position to help a lot of people in various ways and I'll be happy to share some of the stories with you in my next posts.
A friend of mine has told me about Steemit and I should thank him about that. Thanks @steemfluencer!
I'm not sure what I should say at the end, but I'd be happy if we could support each other in achieving what's important for us. If funds are generated, I'll use all of them to fund building the houses.
Sincerely yours,
Hristo Atanasov