Three years ago high school students from the town of Vidin (Northwest Bulgaria) organized a charity Christmas concert. The money raised at the initiative was used for the purchase of food for the lonely people living in Vidin and the surrounding area. The students visited the village of Varbovets and the nursing home in the town of Kula and saw many lonely people living in poverty. Later, they launched a campaign named Be Human in support of the elderly people.

Welcome to Northwest Bulgaria, also known as the Forlorn Northwest! This is how Antonina Stoyanova’s film about the forgotten people begins. Antonina is an eighteen year-old student who is among the organizers of the charity initiative. She and her schoolmates have been organizing for the third consecutive year the campaign Be Human held several days before Christmas on December 21. They take hot food and warm feelings to the elderly people in their area. In this case we are not talking about a deficit of money only, but also of mental and emotional loneliness, because nobody deserves to live in a semi-destroyed house, to be lonely, ill and forgotten, Antonina Lozanova told Radio Bulgaria and added:

Most stories are similar-the closest relatives of the elderly people emigrated abroad or to the largest Bulgarian cities. The saddest story is about an elderly woman who took our food packages and donations through her window, because she was unable to walk. Her house was dilapidated. There was no flooring in the rooms. The floor was covered with rough stone instead and it was impossible to walk there. This elderly woman told us how her parents went to America, earned some money and returned to their home village of Varbovets. They bought some land and a house and settled there. Later, they passed away and the elderly woman has been living alone for years.  Fortunately she can rely on the village Deputy Mayor who brings her bread and wood for heating.

Antonina has been helping people since she was a small child. She is driven by an inner urge and serves as a positive example to other people who also want to do good. In the recent weeks students from different Bulgarian regions followed her example and visited villages in Vidin area to meet the local people and donate food. Perhaps, they were incited by a simple question asked in Antonina’s film about the forgotten people in Bulgaria’s Northwest region: What is the point?

I asked the audience this question, in order to provoke them into action, Antonina explains. When people are aware of their values, they know what matters the most. Now I enjoy peoples’ support, love and understanding and I love taking care of the people in need, because in fifty years or so I will be one of them. Their pensions are quite low and money is not enough, but we cannot change anything if we complain only. I do not like the words hopefully, I hope so, etc. Hope is in the action and the positive example. In the recent weeks Bulgarian students launched a series of charity initiatives, which proves that the young Bulgarians are not complacent, but help people from their area instead, which is great.

The film Severozabraveni (Northerly-Forgotten) earned a prize at A Movie in Hand competition. Antonina is also an author of short films about Bulgaria’s Apostle of Freedom Vasil Levski and other national heroes which won various awards. She dreams of studying film production at the National Academy of Theatre and Film Arts. Although her new walk of life will separate her from Vidin, she will try to help her native town through her future achievements.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov

Photos: private library