When I was a kid I was said to be half a man. When I was only five years old I had a bad accident – I was hit by a car and had to recover for a long time afterwards. At the hospital, they casted my broken limbs and removed the spleen that was affected when the car hit me, but in a life-saving blood transfusion, I was infected with Hepatitis C and developed anemia. Only my parents know what it cost them to get me back on my feet and back to a full life. Fate offered me many obstacles. I suffered a broken pelvis at birth and five surgeries, I suffered from breast tumors. My treatment was costly and my family’s resources were not enough for my education and for this reason I did not enroll to study after finishing high school. Today, however, I am on the verge of my last year of studies.
My name is Galya Borisova, I am 34 years old and I come from the Danube town of Kozloduy. I lived there until I was 26 years old, in this city I dreamed and had many friends. My mother and father worked abroad to support my brother and me financially and to study until we came of age. At 16, I met my husband, but we didn’t have children for a long time. At our wedding, they gave us a Chinese paper lantern on which I wrote ,,BABY” and let it go to heaven to reach God to give me a child, I wanted it so badly and cried every day. After seven years of failed attempts my husband and I decided to proceed with adoption. The day we went to research what paperwork we needed to fill out – it also coincided with my birthday – I found out I was pregnant. Our joy at this miracle was indescribable.
After the birth of our son, we moved to the village of Herlets, near Kozloduy, to our own home, for which my husband worked tirelessly for years. Despite our hard work, however, our means were not enough to support our now larger family and the three of us left for Italy. Three years later, my husband’s sister died and we decided to return to Bulgaria to help raise her children. We enrolled our son Rumen in the kindergarten in Herlets and soon after the headmistress offered me a job as a teacher. She also introduced me to the possibility of enrolling in Pedagogy at the University of Veliko Tarnovo in Vratsa with the financial support of the Trust for Social Alternative. I accepted with great joy.
I started working first as a teaching assistant and I have been a teacher for three years. This is my profession. This October (2022) I will be a fourth year student and I am looking forward to graduating. Thanks to Spaska Mihaylova from the New Way Association and TSA, who made my enrollment in university possible, I am moving forward and happy that I can do what I enjoy and contribute financially to my family.
Being from the Roma community has not prevented me from developing. It never happened that someone came to the garden and doubted my professional qualities. There are not many Roma children in our institution – most who live in the village do not attend kindergarten. We have had many conversations with the parents of these children in an attempt to get them involved in the education cycle. Most of them are afraid of Kovid or do not have the financial ability to buy the necessary clothes and shoes to send their children to us. I understand what it’s like because I have often run into difficulties myself.
Despite the difficulties in our community, I still believe that most Roma children are already integrated. These are also my observations from the trainings organized by TSA. At these meetings, everyone shares their experience in working with the children and their families. Useful topics are discussed and it is clear from these discussions that most Roma want to be a full part of Bulgarian society.
We are approaching the last months of my studies and my son will be a first grader in the fall. I believe that success is achieved with hard work and a little luck. Mine is in my healthy family and my husband who supports me in all endeavors. It was not easy to work, take care of my family and teach at the same time, but my love for children motivated me to qualify as a full-fledged teacher. Working in the kindergarten has made me happy, I am satisfied with myself.
I like to say that everyone’s life is a tale waiting to be told. Rarely do we get a chance to share it with a wide audience, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to do so. And to send my message to all who read my words now – don’t let anything break you. I am a whole and happy person today because I believed in myself and was able to make it in the field I love.
