IN 2014 Sneji Petkova ended up on the street with baby twins after her partner kicked her out of their Fife home.
Having recently moved to Scotland from Bulgaria, she spoke very little English and, not sure what to do, she asked her neighbours for help.
To her astonishment, they not only took her in but helped her learn English and found her a job at the Sheraton Hotel in Edinburgh.
Now, on the 10th anniversary of her arrival in Scotland, she wants to publicly thank all the people who helped her and her family to survive.
“Scottish people are fantastic – so helpful, friendly and caring,” she said.
“The Scottish Government too, because they don’t do discrimination. It doesn’t matter where you are from, they are helping everyone and I am so pleased to stay here that when I hear Flower Of Scotland I cry.”
Now a British (“Scottish!”) citizen, the 44-year-old has just passed her HND in photography after studying for two years at Fife College and is aiming to set up her own business selling her award-winning photographs and homemade gifts.
However, turning her life around has not been easy and she maintains she could not have done it without the help of her neighbours, the wider community and the authorities.
Petkova first came to Scotland to join her fiancé in 2013 but when she became pregnant she decided to go back to her home city of Sofia to have her babies as she knew no-one in Scotland other than her partner and couldn’t speak English.
Her twins were born in April 2014 and she returned to her fiancé that September but he became more and more controlling.
“He was a different person, very controlling, abusive … he was really bad to me and my son from my first marriage, he could not accept him,” she said.
“I told him I was not going to marry him because he was being bad to me and one day he just told me get out from the house. When he put me out in the street with the kids I did not what do but my neighbours, a Scottish family, they helped me.”
When her neighbours discovered she could speak four languages and had worked at the Sheraton in Sofia for eight years, they encouraged her to apply for a job at the Sheraton in Edinburgh and helped her with her CV.
Petkova was given an interview and immediately accepted for a job as a housekeeper, with her neighbour looking after her babies. She was then advised to apply to Fife Council for help and she was given a B&B in Dunfermline for four months.
“It was a very good B&B and I made friends with many people,” she said. “People from the Baptist Church and the local MP came to visit, a social worker helped me and so did the Gingerbread charity. They told me I could apply for some benefits but I said I had to work.”
She was eventually given a flat in Cowdenbeath in April 2015 and her father came from Bulgaria to look after her children while she worked in Edinburgh. In a few months, she had made enough money to bring her firstborn son over from Bulgaria where he had been staying with her mother.
However, the four-hour bus trip to and from Edinburgh to Cowdenbeath for the hotel shifts proved too much and eventually Petkova fell ill, then began to suffer panic attacks and acute anxiety as a result of all the trauma she had been through. Her mental health deteriorated so much she felt scared to leave her house.
“Still everyone helped me,” said Petkova. “Friends from the church visited me every week and the lady from Gingerbread suggested I start to take photos with my phone and maybe I would forget about my fear and go out.
“I started doing that and step by step I went out again, a little further each time. I got a camera and got better and better.”
Petkova was so grateful for all the help she received she began volunteering with the Citizens Advice Bureau and worked there for a number of years until she felt confident enough to take up the HND in photography.
“My graduation ceremony is in November in Dunfermline Abbey and I am so happy,” she said.
Meanwhile the three boys are doing well at school with 15-year-old Alexander enjoying Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and 10-year-old Boris and Mihail playing football for Fife Sons of Struth.
“The twins have made friends forever though the team,” said Petkova.
“The parents and the kids are fantastic – we are not just a team, we are like a family.”
She said she wanted to tell her story to thank everyone who had helped her.
“In the past years I had a lot of hard times, tears, broken heart, anxiety, sickness, a lot of work and a lot of stress but there has also been care, friends, happiness and good moments,” she said.
“Thanks to Scotland for everything that has been done for us and for still helping me and my kids. Thanks to the Scottish people, friends, my football team, neighbours and people from the church.
“Because of you all, I decided to stay here and build my new life and with my camera I show the world how beautiful Scotland is.”
