Jordan outside his home: your kind gifts helped him to survive last winter

Jordan relies on the kindness of neighbours

By anyone’s standard, Jordan is the poorest of the poor. The Roma community to which he belongs survives by gathering herbs and mushrooms, and by picking blueberries in the hills of Plovdiv province, Bulgaria. In summer they find occasional employment in the fields, picking roses for the perfume trade. In winter they live on their savings and eventually pawn anything of value, or take food on credit and get into debt.

But Jordan is disabled and his lack of mobility prevents him from joining in any of these activities. And it will be nine years before he qualifies for an old age pension. So that leaves him dependent on the kindness of his neighbours.

“He has no family to help him,” explains Roumen Ivanov, who brought him a Blythswood shoebox in December. “Jordan feeds on handouts from his neighbours when they take pity on him, and gets soup three times a week from the soup kitchen which we have organised at the church.”

The 56-year-old lives in a tumbledown shack which lacks electricity and water. Roumen knows Jordan well enough to safely predict how the contents of the shoebox will be used. “He will use the shampoo to wash at the tap on the street and he’ll go to bed wearing the hat and gloves,” Roumen says.

“The toothpaste will be exchanged for some bread from a neighbour but he will keep the calendar and the Christian booklet for himself. He still has the booklet from the previous year and likes to feel that he has something he can call his own.”