Skip to main content

No small thing

By August 21, 2021August 24th, 2021House of Opportunity, Stories

To step out from a safe place into a world that you know to be full of difficulty and danger is no small thing, but Vesko is doing just that.Vesko’s family life was so bad that he and his sister were placed into care when he was 15 years old. After just a month, Vesko’s sister was adopted by his aunt, but Vesko was left in the orphanage, a place he grew to dislike intensely. Having fallen a long way behind at school, when it came time for Vesko to leave the institution in Dobrich, he was forced to seek casual work wherever he could. With no family he could turn to, or good friends to seek advice from, Vesko made a risky move to Sofia, got into gambling, took out loans, and fell into deeper and deeper difficulty.

It was in Sofia that Vesko met friend of a friend Ganush, a House of Opportunity resident. Ganush introduced Vesko to the FSCI team, who offered him a place in one of the Houses. Vesko was not sure of his new home at first, but trust was soon built, and he began the long process of getting his life back on track, one step at a time.

First, Vesko needed to finish school. This took two years, whilst he also worked steadily to help pay off the loans. He slipped back into gambling more than once, but the team helped him to work through this, and these days, Vesko is living debt-free!

Once Vesko had finished school, he could choose his own way forward. Vesko is artistic and is a talented musician. He was drawn to acting but decided that he would work towards becoming a music teacher. He is now entering his third and final year at university and is making good progress towards his goal.

“Vesko has been in the House of Opportunity over  four years, which is a much longer residency that normal”, explains Niki Zlatev, FSCI’s Social Work Manager. “He had many problems to overcome, which took a lot of time to work through. Now, because he has already been out in the world, he is nervous about going back again. He is ready, but he has less confidence in himself than the team has in him! We know that he is ready. He has accommodation for his final university year, and he is working hard. We will always be here to support him – but now Vesko has to take the final steps”.

It’s no small thing to leave the one place that has been a real home after dealing with rejection, struggle and hardships, but Vesko is stepping out, and we couldn’t be any prouder.