Staff Spotlight: Danail Tsvetanov Petrov

Education - High School/Secondary special – Forestry and logging. Worked in a managerial role in a parquet company for 6 years. Been a volunteer in Africa for 6 months. Finishing the College for International Co-operation and Development, Winestead Hall, United Kingdom.

The six months in Zambia were amazing and unforgettable for me. There I worked as a volunteer. One of my best moments was when we managed to build a tricycle for a boy who lost his ability to walk 3 years ago. Kennedy again started to go to school, to go to the shop, in the neighborhood, to help his family and to be a normal part of the society. The smile which I saw in his face when he saw the bicycle will remain in my memory forever. The tears of the eyes of his father changed my life forever, and since then I realized that I'm obligated to continue working in development area.

My knowledge about Climate Change, poverty, social economical systems, organic farming and eco literacy increases every day since Im working for RVA. My position as a teacher has provided me with the knowledge to work in many different fields, with many different people. I became more flexible and humble.

When the students come back from serving period in Belize or Ecuador and the work in the projects of Humana People to People, they have many different stories. For me, personally the best is always the interaction with the local community - the organic gardens which they built together, the different activities as mobilizing people to clean the village from plastic, the different workshops, the classes for healthy food, tropical diseases, etc.

I personally am teacher of the Climate Compliance program which is a 6 months. I love this program because it has the perfect mixture of theory lessons which are followed by practical actions in our academy or in the community. Addressing the Climate Change as a global threat for the entire biota is essential and there for the more people who join the better.

We are front runners in the education for Climate Change. But more than just studies we are giving practical examples of how to mitigate the carbon footprint. We are almost all year powered by a PV system, we harvest the rain water and use it for our domestic needs and for watering the garden.

We have biogas and biochar production. We produce organic vegetables and our animals are free range. Our students become Climate Change educators and whenever they go in the world they are able to speak about the issue. They are very well prepared to react in our changing world environment.

All the people who are working in the academy are passionate in changing the world or more correctly - to stop polluting our home planet. All of us have common goals and this makes our communication much easier. All of us - principal, promoters, teachers, workers, students - are taking the decision how to run the academy together and this makes our small community very united.