“Cure the body and the soul, but also help the poor and the needy,” such is the mission of a doctor, as Doctor Hristo Alexiev sees it. For 37 years the surgeon has been living and working in Germany. Besides to his work, he also devotes time to charity causes, one of which is to help Father Ivan’s shelters for the needy in Novi Han and Yakimovo village. Their friendship goes back almost 10 years, and Hristo Alexiev says he will never forget the first time they met.

Hristo Alexiev’s wife survived a bad road accident and that was what prompted him to revisit everything he has achieved in his life and start donating and helping the needy. One day his brother told him about Father Ivan from Novi Han and his mission of helping people. Alexiev was truly impressed and travelled to Bulgaria to meet with him.

Hristo Alexiev currently heads his own medical centre in Hamburg, though he has spent many years working at different catholic and evangelist hospitals in Germany. That is why the choice he made to help Father Ivan is no coincidence, as the social mission of Christian churches is something he finds only natural. The doctor decided to help build a medical centre at one of the shelters in Novi Han or in the village of Yakimovo near Montana. The idea was not to be at Novi Han, because in 2011 it was established that some of the buildings Father Ivan uses were put up illegally and had to be torn down. This decision was subsequently reversed but the prospect of the homeless being left without a roof over their heads forced the priest to seek a lasting solution to the problem. That is what took him to Yakimovo, where he bought 35 houses to put up the needy. That was how new hope dawned on Doctor Alexiev’s project.

“The aim is to be able to treat people without health insurance,” says Doctor Alexiev. “When I visited the place I found out this was a major problem for the region. I was left with the impression that these people need access to medical services. On the one hand we shall use the money from patients who do have medical insurance for given clinical pathways, on the other – we shall use donations. We shall also have to build a facility that can be used on site depending on the needs of the people there, with a minimum of running costs.”

But how can that be done in practice?

“We are planning to implement the project in three stages. First – we shall create a polyclinic with four different consulting rooms. The first will be for a general practitioner, there will be a gynecologist, an ophthalmologist and a dentist. The colleagues who will be general practitioners will also run the establishment in terms of administration and contacts with specialists. They will travel from Lom and Montana for which they will be paid fees. We shall negotiate payment with them, so they will be motivated to commit to the cause. We hope to be able to put the first stage in place by the autumn of this year. During the second stage we would like to set up a day clinic with a surgery and an area for sterilizing and preparing surgical instruments, as well as short-stay beds – for up to three days. At this time we want to be able to provide X-ray equipment for onsite diagnostics. The aim is to be able to perform elective surgery at the facility. At this point we will not be able to provide emergency medical services.”

Father Ivan’s story has reached many people in Germany, thanks to the charity campaigns Doctor Alexiev organizes. The fact that the priest treats everyone exactly in the same way, whatever their ethnicity, religion or level of education and they all live as one family is something people in Germany appreciate. Because for them solidarity and the endeavour to create something with your own hands that is relatively independent of the state, are two things they deem well worth fighting for.

English version: Milena Daynova