Homeless young men hired by a private company with the help of Klassa daily

The sewing factory INTERTEX 2000 has employed Svetoslav Mekikov and Georgi Ivanov - 20-year-olds with mild disabilities who have been wandering homeless in the streets of Sofia. This happened after the intervention of journalists from Klassa daily and Ms. Valeria Zhekova, Chairwoman of the Bulgarian Association of Apparel and Textiles Producers and Exporters (BAATPE). Currently, the two youngsters are being taught to work on sewing machines and perform simple operations for which they are being paid. At this extremely difficult time for them, the heads of a company producing high quality knitwear for designer studios in London gave them a helping hand.

A descriptive report on the tragic fate of the two young men has been prepared by bTV, to be broadcast tomorrow morning. Georgi and Svetoslav have been trained at the Knyaz Boris I social vocational center, located in the Hadji Dimitar residential district in Sofia. Georgi Ivanov has a degree of a tailoring worker, but it is hard for him to put the sewing machine in operation. Svetoslav Mekikov, with a proven diagnosis of mild mental retardation, has been trained as a kitchen assistant but continues his training as a tailor. Georgi no longer has the right to live in the boarding-house of the social vocational centre and Svetoslav has filed an application for leaving it, probably under compulsion. “They are not children, they are adults. I will not accept Svetoslav back in the boarding-house,” Ms. Kapka Georgieva, Director of the social centre, told Klassa in a phone conversation.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy sent a letter to Klassa, informing that the New Beginning - from Education to Employment project, implemented by the Employment Agency, with a budget of BGN 35 mln, provides an opportunity for training in a working environment for unemployed young people without labour experience.

Georgi and Svetoslav still do not have a roof over their heads and rely on the company where they work. With the assistance of journalists, the two young men have filed applications for temporary accommodation to the Social Assistance department, Oborishte Municipality.

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