This photo of second grader Niki touched many Bulgarians, a father exclaimed: My eyes filled with tears

One publication caught the attention of thousands of Bulgarians on the social network Facebook. It’s about a second grader named Nicky, who in this cold weather goes to school in sandals and no jacket. A father of two related what he saw, he saw Sofia24.bg. Here is the man’s entire post, unedited:

“This is Nicky. He is a second grade student in a segregated school in a small Bulgarian town. Nicky is good at math: he calculates quickly, but writing numbers is quite difficult (for his age). Nicky sits in the back row, alone. Nicky is smiling, playful and seemingly happy with his situation.

The first thing that caught my eye walking into class were Nikki’s bare legs. Maybe because I am the father of two children? Maybe because I’ve worn galoshes, ripped shoes… to school and stood for hours with wet feet – until I get home. But I never went to school in sandals and short (seemingly small) socks in early winter. The weather today was rainy. Nikki doesn’t have a winter jacket either. She had no jacket. But Nikki is at school every day – words from the principal. And she is engaged.

My eyes were watering all the time, but I controlled myself and rubbed my eyes, as if something had entered my mind – there are children, teachers…, again. And I wiped my tears, secretly, so that no one would find out. And I was looking at his feet again. Then I asked him something… and left. I left his class. And he was still happily playing and counting with his peers.

No, I won’t say where Nikki lives and what school it is. If we look around and stop for a moment, we will see the thousands of children we miss because we are used to them: they are like this, they don’t want it, it is like this with them, etc.

Nicky will have warm shoes, jacket, hat and socks. But not all children like him will have.

Today I rediscovered once again why I love my job (it’s quite the meaning of life) and it makes a lot of sense from what we do with hundreds of like-minded people. Here again I don’t want to comment on another imposter who wants to erase children like Niki from our education system – like with a pencil eraser. But Niki is Bulgaria and her future! As long as I’m around, I will fight for these children to be visible, but also to experience justice.

Olga Ninova-Trayanova, thank you for making me a part of this (emotional life) JUMP math lesson“.