Dear Friends,
Every year, the America for Bulgaria Foundation brings together people who are trying, each in their own way, to make Bulgaria a better place to live. Journalists, doctors, teachers, business leaders, and NGO professionals gather to talk about what they have learned, what still feels hard, and what keeps them going.
This year’s partner forum, held in Sofia under the theme “Optimystics: Optimism Without Illusions,” was about just that – the clear-eyed kind of optimism that comes from rolling up your sleeves and doing the work.
One of the speakers, Georgi Petkov, a business leader from Trakia Economic Zone, told a story that began far from conference halls. At an annual gathering for children from social care institutions, he found himself seated next to a quiet young woman. When he asked about her plans, she said she would have to leave the home when she turned eighteen, in a few months. Like thousands of young people raised without families, she would age out of the system overnight, with no support waiting on the other side.
That sentence stayed with him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the contrast: at eighteen, his own kids would have choices; this girl had none. Georgi knew from experience that partnerships could open doors – through the Trakia Training Center, he had already seen what happens when business, vocational schools, and NGOs work together. So he and a few associates decided to act. They created a program that offers vocational training and apprenticeships to teenagers from institutions and at-risk backgrounds.
Soon, dropout rates started falling. Students who had given up began showing up early, ready to learn. Some found jobs. Others found purpose.
Before taking the stage at the forum, Georgi stopped for a haircut – with one of the very trainees who had gone through the program.
That’s what optimism without illusions looks like: seeing the challenge clearly, choosing to act anyway, and lifting someone else up along the way.
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Optimism Without Illusions: When Business and Citizens Act Together
At this year’s partner forum, more than 450 people from business, civil society, the media, and education came together around a shared belief: that optimism is not denial; it’s determination. From young entrepreneurs and journalists to company leaders and doctors, their stories showed how progress happens when we act together. Meet the optimists without illusions who keep Bulgaria moving forward.
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Optimism Without Illusions Is Our Superpower
With warmth and candor, ABF President Nancy Schiller looks back on a decade of change and forward to the work still ahead – a call to keep upholding a democracy we can all live in, not just admire.
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Together We Carry the Load and Move Ahead
ABF Executive Director Desislava Taliokova reminds us that partnership – between business and civil society, between people – is what carries us through when the path gets steep.
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Optimism Is the Healthiest Habit We Can Keep
A surgeon and public servant, Dr. Mitova reminds us that optimism isn’t denial but discipline – a vital muscle we can train to heal ourselves, our communities, and the systems we live in.
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When Business and Mission Speak the Same Language
In a lively conversation, Todor Breshkov and Trayan Trayanov show that when entrepreneurs and educators work side by side, they create more than opportunity: they create shared responsibility.
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Believing in the Process, Even When Nothing Seems to Happen
Through the quiet art of fermentation, brewer Tsvetomir Stefanov found a lesson for life: that change takes time, and that hope, like good beer, matures slowly but surely.
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Truth Takes Courage – and the Strength of a Community
For 25 years, Stoyana Georgieva and her Mediapool team have stood on the front line of journalism, proving that integrity and persistence can outlast intimidation – and that truth, too, needs allies.
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Want more inspiration?
🎬 Catch every story and speaker from
“Optimystics: Optimism Without Illusions”
in our video playlist.
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Why Doing Good Is Good Business
What does corporate generosity look like beyond a donation? In this lively exchange moderated by ABF’s Nadia Zaharieva, Milena Dragiyiska-Dencheva (Lidl Bulgaria), Darina Stoyanova (Prestige 96), and Pressian Karakostov (PubGalaxy) talk about personal involvement that matters more than money, the first small steps that grow into lasting habits of giving, and the lessons they’ve learned from the perseverance of their nonprofit partners. It’s a reminder that real impact begins not with scale, but with sincerity. And that doing good changes the giver, too.
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Sending warmest regards,
Your friends at the America for Bulgaria Foundation
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