Jesus is the name for every second boy
in the soup kitchen of Faculty Neighborhood

The name that remains to be the only hope of their hopeless future. Because of this name the team of Mission Possible in Bulgaria is ready to serve them.

Every other boy here has the name Jesus.

And their destinies are alike: life on the garbage dumpster and in the little shacks of tin or cardboard-paper, and life around the narrow and mud-covered streets of the Gypsy neighborhood. Life in the dirt. Cold, violence, lack of parents’ care and long, hungry days.

Here’s the first Jesus - a six-year-old chap, one of the five hungry mouths in the house. His father has been who-knows-where for years, and his mother is struggling to meet the two ends of their sorrowful life.

The bronze colored face of this Jesus melts into a never-ending smile - and you could wonder why? May be it’s because of the warm soup, because of the gentle look of the women-cooks or because of my curiosity - I don’t know! What I know is thasometimes it would cost me lots of chocolates and gifts to get the same kind of smile from my own kids…

Otherwise they all live in a part of Sofia called The Faculty - I wonder if it was called like that as a ridicule to their illiteracy or because of the street ‘school’ where the skillful Gypsy kids learn how to steal, to fight or to beg.
The Faculty is one of the misery-stricken Gypsy neighborhoods in Sofia where Mission Possible started a soup kitchen for the children at risk. For the Gypsy families with countless kids this comes as a true mercy from the Lord because at least for the kids, at least once a day, there is warm soup and bread provided.

And the kids come in herds, dirty, hungry and helpless. The hungriest have been waiting in front of the kitchen since the morning. They jump around as hungry little sparrows, waiting to see the big pot getting to boil that warm and delicious soup which will soothe the pain in their empty little tummies.
And truly - every other boy here has the name of Jesus - their only hope for their hopeless future. This is the name their mothers and grandmothers call to for health, for luck and for an answer to their needs. This is the name in which the volunteering cooks prepare the soup. Because of this name we are ready to be with them for their needs.

„Good morning, Jesus! It was so good to celebrate recently your birthday!“