More and more Bulgarian emigrants have been returning to the country in recent years, though in most cases they remain mere statistics – how many people have landed at airports in Bulgaria. Yet some of them have been through a lot and have lived interesting lives, which makes their stories worth telling.

Martin Petrov graduated law at Sofia University, but knowing there were so many practicing lawyers in the country, opted to specialize abroad. He chose criminal law and went to Canada to do his master’s degree. At the university in Montreal he took part in a research project in criminal law which guaranteed him an internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and later he got a permanent job there. Martin says that what it takes for a lawyer to be able to cope in such a competitive environment is commitment to one’s work. He quickly rose in the hierarchy and made a name for himself among his coworkers:

“I worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for 10 years and in that time I went from position to position. My last job was Chief of the Office of the Registrar. My job involved helping to create the organization that came as heir to the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the genocide in Rwanda. We created a new court which took over the functions of the abovementioned tribunals. I was then invited to take part in the creation of a specialized court for Kosovo which is now in existence. It officially started functioning less than a year ago and the prosecutor is expected to close the investigation which will lead to indictments. After that I was invited to the International Criminal Court to reform its secretariat. That project took me 18 months.”

After a decade devoted to international law, Martin Petrov decided he had reached his limit in career development and had to find a new vocation. Meanwhile he had more time to spend at home with his daughter who went to a children’s club in The Hague. And Martin gradually noticed a change in her and a growing eagerness to go to the club. Soon he found out this was not a party centre where parents can leave their children but something so much more. The programme it works with is American and has a tradition going back 40 years; it has been applied in over 350 clubs around the world:

“It is targeted at children aged 10 months to 12 years and the classes are divided up into different age groups. The aim of the programme is to help the early development of children in three directions – physical, intellectual and social,” Martin says and adds: “This is done through physical exercise, fun and games and music, composed specifically for the centre. All activities follow a set curriculum with a different theme for each week and the skills the children acquire are also different. It is a way they can learn things without even realizing they are because to them it is just a game.”

Impressed by what he had seen, Martin found out that the company which set up these centres was looking for new markets to grow. He decided to apply and was able to convince the proprietors that he was the man who could develop their project in this country. That was how Martin Petrov came to officially represent the company in Bulgaria and discovered his new mission in life – to help children find their place in society because they are its future.

English version: Milena Daynova