Mikhail Gariyan, the homeless 68-year-old man with a long white beard, is known among locals of Krasnodar as Uncle Misha. He is a big sports fan and a kind of mascot for local teams. The man was always seen with a ball and never missed basketball, football and volleyball matches, which he was allowed to attend for free.
But not many people knew the sad story of his life. Back in 1989 Mikhail had to escape from his home city Baku, Azerbaijan, because of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia. The war took everything and everyone in his life. The man fled to the southern Russian region of Kuban and later moved to the city of Krasnodar, where he earned his living selling fruits at local markets. The old man couldn't rely on his pension as long as his documents were lost, too.
The story of Uncle Misha was brought to the public attention and shared on social media in Autumn 2016, when he was looking for shelter to survive through the coming winter. Activists initiated the fundraising campaign "Home for Uncle Misha" to collect enough money for the man to get his very own roof above his head.
On January 15, the activists together with Mikhail Gariyan were participating in a TV shooting, hoping that it will help to attract even more people and boost the fundraising process. That is when famous Victoria's Secret supermodel Xenia Deli surprised everyone. The 27-year-old Moldovan beauty walked in and presented the old man an envelope with a million rubles (US $16,893).
According to the organizers, the total sum now equals to 1,779,946 rubles (slightly over $30,000), which is enough to buy a home for Uncle Misha. The details on how Xenia got to know about the Russian homeless pensioner and what motivated her to help him remain unknown and will be revealed later.
Now, activists are helping Uncle Misha to re-issue his documents, conduct a health check-up and look for a suitable accommodation.
