The Neofit Rilski 153th Sports High school in Sofia received for free a boarding house made of shipping containers. Entrepreneur Zvezdelin Minchev and architect Rumen Parvanov are the organizers of the charity initiative, as they have put efforts and money into the construction process and the funding of the building. The young athletes have recently moved in.

The project is a two-storey building of 12 shipping containers with 8 apartments – two of them have two rooms, other two have four premises and four apartments have three rooms each. The building’s capacity is up to 42 inhabitants. One of the ground apartments is accessible for people with disabilities.

The field work required a bit more than a month /1 August – 13 September/ due to the innovative technology. The construction method is still new for Bulgaria, despite the fact that such projects have been executed since 2006 in Holland for instance. Such facilities have distinguished advantages: low price, short construction terms, high level of energy effectiveness etc.

The charity initiative has caused huge interest across Facebook where Zvezdelin Minchev described the project:

“About a week ago I was strongly provoked by a Facebook contact of mine. It wasn’t aimed at me directly but the comment said that all initiatives of this kind, NGOs and charity funds didn’t help with anything, did practically nothing and in fact only disconnected citizens. I got really annoyed and published the description of what we had done with my partner. Then I was really surprised by all the greetings and the support received. I didn’t expect all this positive energy at all. Many wrote that in case we started another similar initiative we could rely on their support. That gives me the strength and confidence to go on. There are plenty of people willing to help and perhaps someone is needed to unify them.”

The project executed and the results – from positive Facebook comments to the kids’ smiles, make Zvezdelin believe that things can change for the better:

“This hasn’t been the first initiative of architect Rumen Parvanov. When we did it, we aimed at providing comfort to the children – warmth amidst clean and nice facilities. We put in a lot of efforts and our hearts. The technology was new and that cost nerves too. I believe the Bulgarian society is now awaken and mature, regarding such initiatives. That makes me glad and brings me hope that things in Bulgaria might go up. I also hope that we have sparkled the start of such initiatives, mostly aimed at children, because they are our future…”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev