If they come back and live on the benches again, I will no longer be involved, the head of social affairs in the Plovdiv municipality is categorical
72-year-old Maria Nacheva and her son Zlatan Petkov (37), who lived in the middle alley on Ruski Blvd. in Plovdiv for almost a month, now have a roof over their heads.
“After your publication in “24 Chasa”, we became very involved and managed to convince them that the best thing for them is to go to a shelter,” explained the head of the social directorate in Plovdiv Municipality, Veselin Boteva.
Former municipal councilor Stoyanka Bagryanova also thanked the media as a citizen. “It struck me that as of today they are gone from Ruski Blvd. I was thinking about them all day yesterday in this rain, where did they take shelter,” she said.
As we informed, the apartment of Maria and Zlatan at 23 “Sokol” Street burned down and they went out into the street. They slept on a bench, wrapped in blankets. Passers-by took pity on them and left them food. Separately, Maria received a pension.
Social workers explained to the mother and son that if they want to be together, they can be accommodated in a shelter in Dimitrovgrad. “We called our colleagues and earnestly begged them. They agreed,” said Veselin Boteva.
She was ready to provide transportation for the mother and son to Dimitrovgrad, but they said they could travel by train. They grabbed the luggage, collected in suitcases and bags, and headed for the station.
“Yesterday at 5 p.m. we called our colleagues in Dimitrovgrad to ask if they had arrived. They replied that they were with them, but were still thinking about whether to stay,” said the social worker.
She intends to check whether their apartment on “Sokol” street was actually burned, although they were not an investigative body.
“If Zlatan and Maria return from Dimitrovgrad to Plovdiv again and live on the benches on Ruski Blvd., I will no longer engage with them,” Boteva is categorical. She recalled that previously she offered the mother to be temporarily placed in a home for the elderly, and the son – in a shelter, but the two were adamant that they did not want to be separated.
