No, no, no to the early marriages!

We would pass a heart like another heart, another explanation in love, another testimony of fidelity and love on social media, but one heart was different because of the caption: “No, no, no to the early marriages.” With this message the children from the Ihtiman school “St. St. Cyril and Methodius ”on social networks. Their photos quickly reached thousands of followers on the day of love – February 14. They were organized by Gergana Yanakieva, an educational mediator at the school.

“It’s hard,” Gergana said. “We talk a lot about this topic, we talk both at school and in the neighborhood. Nearly five thousand people are in the neighborhood. There are parents who hear, but there are also those who just say, “Okay, okay, that’s right, and two days later they married their son or daughter.” I don’t know what else to do!?

Gergana Yanakieva

Gergana started working as a cleaner at the school a few years ago:

“I’ve never been ashamed of my job, you have to work.”

She becomes a mediator without realizing it and without being appointed as such. She helped the then director of work with the Roma community. When Reneta Marinkova became the director of the school, without hesitation she appointed Gergana as an educational mediator at the school. Gergana’s two daughters were immediately attracted to her.

Gergana’s daughter, who is also a mediator

“I have a secondary education, I graduated from high school in Ihtiman, I can drive, I have a C category. But I did not study in the neighborhood, I studied in the city center. My two daughters graduated from high school, the youngest is in the 12th grade. I want children to be educated, to know more, to be independent. On February 14, we gathered about twenty children in a classroom and started talking about education, because their presence at school is important to them, that through education they can find work more easily and early marriage will only it has prevented them from developing and will take away their childhood. Next time we have decided to show them films, we have not yet decided which ones, but we will gather them again and that is why we will talk again, because despite our stories, there are still girls and boys who get married early.”

Gergana believes that there can be change, despite all the difficulties she faces every day, parents who do not want to send their children to school, their carelessness about the conditions in which they live, their illiteracy, despite the helpless work of institutions she believes in a better future for children. They decided for themselves what to write on the heart, they asked for it.

“As soon as the school principal and I managed to convince my daughters to continue their education… Both are educational mediators, but they are also students. They are already in their second year. The little one is graduating now, and she wants to study. She wants to be like her sisters. I did not get married at 14, my husband and I have known each other since school, I have not studied higher education, but I want my children to study. And the director helped us a lot. May these children succeed! I really want this!”

Raycho Vasilev