He asked her for some change and in return he would draw her something. Mateja didn't have any cash on her, but she didn't want to just walk away. "I started talking to him and asked him how he ended up on the street, because he seemed very young."
Their conversation lasted at least two hours. They walked almost the entire centre of Ljubljana, and she was completely moved by his story. "He was put into foster care as a child, where he was physically and mentally abused, and then he ran away. When we met, he was only 19 years old and had been living on the streets for almost a year. Unfortunately, his experience of foster care was so terrible that he decided to live on the streets to avoid further violence and abuse."
Listening to his story, she felt his pain and sadness, but most of all she was struck by the fact that not everyone is lucky enough to have someone they love in their life. So that's when she took action and turned to her Instagram followers to share his story. She decided to collect some things for him, find him and give them to him. "A lot of people contacted me. Together we collected quite a lot of money and things. But there was a problem, because in the meantime I had lost his contact details (which he had written on a small piece of paper he had with him), so I was never really able to hand them over to him and unfortunately I never saw him again."
This story reminded her of all the children in this world who have ever been abused and neglected. She thought about how hard it must be for them to be all alone in the world. "No one deserves this." That is why she regularly draws attention to such injustices on her profile and also talks about the terrible things that are happening around the world.
She is sincerely sorry that she never met Lu, because she would have really liked to help him. She hopes that she helped him at least a little by talking to him.
Klavdija Rupar Vuga
English (UK) 
Slovenščina 
Italiano 
Magyar