"I am Haki Kan - a writer, 29 years old from Kardzhali. I do charity work and I write, these are my two main activities. I want to bring inspiration through my words and I want my deeds to be inspirational". This is how our latest report about the good role model in our midst begins. It's the story of a young boy, born and raised in poverty, living alone for most of his childhood, self-raised and self-educated, who set himself some very big goals that he has been pursuing for the past ten years. All in the name of being good to others and to the world.

His first book, Larger Than Life, was published two years ago. The Hero's Journey has just been published in Bulgaria. It is a kind of autobiography about the hardships he endured from the age of 6, when he was left alone, until today, when he describes himself as a successful man, while others refer to him as the superhero of Kardzhali. Much of the proceeds from his books go to the hundreds of charity events he has organised in recent years.

"This is the example I want us to leave - to do good, to help, to show that goodness is the real driving force in the world, and that the better we are for each other, the better life will be for us all. 

Haki Kan has every reason to be angry at fate and the vicissitudes of life in the unforgiving modern world. Born in 1994, he was raised by his mother and grandmother. Faced with overwhelming poverty, his mother made the difficult decision to leave her son, who was six years old at the time, to seek a livelihood abroad.

"Since she could not earn money to live in Bulgaria, my mother decided to go to Greece. When I was six years old, she bought a bag of her favourite food, mainly chocolate wafers and other sugary things, and left. She only told me one thing - don't open the door to anyone," says Haki with a smile. A lot of people might think it is very irresponsible for a mother to leave her child like that, but her life has been a struggle and I am actually grateful to her because she did it all for me. I don't think people should have an easy life. They need to have a hard life to learn the important lessons," Kahn believes today.

He also tried living abroad. After his mother had organised her life in the Netherlands, she took him with her. He stayed for three months, and then, drawing on his 14 years of extensive life experience, he proudly declared that "whatever he was going to achieve, he was going to do it in Bulgaria". And he returned to his homeland.

It was then that Haki discovered his passion for words and began to write. At first he started writing song lyrics. "I thought I would become the best lyricist in Bulgaria," he recalls. By the time he was 18, he had a big goal in mind: to write a book that would be read and inspire people all over the world. A book that would go beyond the personal story of Haki Khan from Kardzhali and create many more similar stories of "beating" life. He says readers from 15 countries, including across the ocean, are already searching for and reading his two published books.

"The autobiographical The Hero's Journey literally describes my life - how I started from nothing, the goals I set for myself and how I achieved them," he told Radio Kardzhali's Galina Stefanova.

Haki Kan has organised hundreds of charity events in recent years. From cleaning up riverbeds and parks to responding to dozens of alerts posted on his Facebook page for families in need. "Unless these things are in front of their eyes, people don't understand the plight of many families in this country," says Haki Khan.

"I visit the families first to talk to them and see what their problems are - to personally assess whether these are people who really need help or whether they want to take advantage of it. Because in my experience I have met people who try to profit from the kindness of others.

The help is specific to each family - food, nappies, clothes, shoes for children or adults. He also helps animals in need, taking some to the vet, giving food to others and finding forever homes for some.

"For me, there is no such thing as a lesser good or a wrong good. We help where we can, whether it's a person or an animal in need. We try to make the world a better place here and now with our limited resources," explains Haki Kahn, who along with his like-minded friends, is once again making Christmas a reality for many of his fellow citizens.

"At the moment, because of the Christmas holidays, we are providing food for all the needy families. Last week we distributed about 160 kg of food. I want to help these people have a happier holiday, a more nutritious meal, so they can feel a little more comfortable knowing they have someone to count on," says the young man who has turned around his own bad odds through kindness and set himself on a path to a brighter and more peaceful future.

Text: Vesela Krasteva /based on an interview by Galina Stefanova, BNR-Kardzhali/

Photos: Facebook/ Haki Kan

Translated and posted by Elizabeth Radkova