Despite the numerous disputes about whether the Eighth of March is a celebration that belongs to another time, and whether it is insulting for women to be honored only once a year, on this day hardly anyone fails to dial the ten digits memorized in their phones under Mom.

This woman is the 74-year-old Kina Rasheva from the village of Kurtovo Konare. 16 years ago the retired doctor opened her heart to a child in need and became the first foster mother in the country. The story began as that of many other foster parents - with a visit to an orphanage. Around Christmas time Kina went to the Plovdiv orphanage of Rada Kirkovich to read a poem of hers, dedicated to children. The eyes of all kids left a trace in her heart but she was most touched by the sadness she saw in the eyes of 9-year-old Marian. Kina and her husband Atanas offered to take the boy home for the summer. ‘Some of the children had aunts, grandmothers who, albeit rarely, took the kids with them for a period of time. Only Marian had never been taken home by anybody. My heart sank and I wanted to take him home with me, the country’s first foster mother said. The little one quickly got attached to the new family. One day, when the end of the holidays approached, Marian hugged Kina and said that if he returned to the home, he would commit suicide. Feeling confused she immediately rang the director of the Rada Kirkovich institution. She reacted spontaneously: the next day she arrived in Kurtovo Konare together with social workers and for the first time they explained to Kina what foster care was. ‘In those years it was only a project of a British non-governmental organization, and it was not popular in Bulgaria’," the doctor remembers.

POORLY BUT WITH LOVE

They entrusted them with the child although the family was not rich. Marian was happy because he had a TV, a yard with flowers and animals. He graduated from school with honors, and then went to study at the Plovdiv Seminary. The boy is talented, a good singer and plays the piano. At the moment he is not employed in his major, trying his luck as a laborer in England instead. He feels good and often gets in touch with Kina and Atanas, whom he calls ‘mother’ and ‘father’. He regularly sends them money – to add something to their pensions which are otherwise difficult to live off of.

‘My life has been like an odyssey,’ Kina smiles as she never suspected that after Marian she would have the chance to save the lives of several more children. The second was Petya. When they brought her to the home of the doctor and her husband she was almost lifeless and mentally retarded. With care and love, they managed to bring her back to life. She started going to school, became calmer. Kina made a huge effort to educate the girl at home so she could catch up with the educational content she had missed. They poured over the lessons for hours and thanks to this Petya managed to finish high school. When younger, Atanas was a traffic controller at the train station of Kurtovo Konare. He was handy with the sewing machine so he personally made clothes for the girl who came to their home with only a summer dress on her back. Today Petya is married in а not too distant village, and young and old sill meet for the holidays.

AN OPEN DOOR

Although Kina and Atanas Rashevi are older their home is still open to children and young people in need. Despite the fact that the elderly couple do not receive any financial assistance from the state for one of their last ‘foster‘ sons – Andon, the elderly couple continue to care for the boy in good faith. He is 22 but he is in the 12th grade because he started going to school later. By law, foster families are entitled to financial subsidies for children and youth under 18. Andon is out of this category but he is not worried – he knows that his foster mom and dad from the village will not abandon him. He studies at the Plovdiv School and sleeps in a supervised home for care leavers but when the weekend comes he is in a hurry to catch the bus to Kurtovo Konare.

Together with Andon, Kina and Atanas also reached out to his brother Kancho. ‘They warned us that he was a difficult teenager – he would run away from wherever he was placed and disappear from the social institutions. He had a mental retardation and would wander with homeless people. Now there is no calmer child in school’, the foster mother boasts. Teachers accepted him in class with the idea for him to learn at least some basic things in each subject. ‘If he can remember two or three sentences from each lesson, it would be something’, the teachers warned the foster mother. However, she decided to prove them wrong; she acquired pedagogical literature, she solved math problems and wrote homework with him. Today the former little wanderer is one of the best in his Math class; Kina is really proud that he recently received an excellent grade for a literature essay too.

ABOUT THE POWER OF GOOD

Some months ago, the Rashevi family, famous for their kindness, suffered a hard blow - Atanas was diagnosed with cancer. ‘I was devastated. The doctors warned me that they could not operate on him because he would not survive such an intervention. But I did not give up fighting for my husband’, Kina said. Although she is a medic and a person of science, she strongly believes in alternative medicine. She began to make her husband immune stimulating potions. Her biggest weapon was prayers. ‘I believe in God. I believe that we should not offend and be angry so that we do not poison our bodies and our thoughts. I am convinced that this is the reason my husband’s recent tests are stable and his indicators are better’, the woman cannot hide her excitement. She taught all her four children to pray. ‘I am most proud of the fact that they are good people. Besides what was necessary for school, I taught all of them two more things – how to pray and how to give first aid’, Kina says.

For her long-time ‘service’ in aid of children she was awarded the ‘Worthy Bulgarians’ award by the newspaper 24 Chasa. She was congratulated personally by the President Rosen Plevnevliev and a little later she received the title of ‘Honorary Citizen of Stamboliyski’. And although she does not hide that she is grateful for all the honors, the first foster mother has a different philosophy about life. ‘When we leave this world, it won’t matter what diplomas, testimonials and real estate we have, but how much good we have done’, she says firmly.

‘For the Eight of March I want to wish all readers of the Mtel blog to first remember that they are mothers, if they are already so fortunate -  whether the child is their own or an adopted one. Spend time nurturing your children. If you raise a good person, your mission has already been accomplished’, Kina Rasheva smiles.

Source: Mtel Blog