Optimism for Bulgaria

Snail derbies, a ride through bucolic scenery on the gourmet express, beehive-air therapy, a stroll through a nineteenth-century village that will make you feel like you just stepped out of a historic movie set: Northern Bulgaria has that and so much more to offer travelers looking for high-quality, authentic experiences.

The Old Mill, located in the village of Karpachevo, came back to life after a year-long restoration with the support of the America for Bulgaria Foundation, Letnitsa Municipality, volunteers from the local community, and architecture students from across Bulgaria.

Natalia, or Nata, as everyone calls her, is an Odessa-born, Plovdiv-based entrepreneur with an economics and engineering background and a welcoming smile who has assumed the role of “an unofficial consul of her country in Plovdiv.”

Elina and other Bulgarian business leaders have been pulling twenty-hour days in an effort to help people fleeing the bombs in Ukraine — and using social platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn to organize support and keep volunteers in Bulgaria apprised of relief activities.

The Media Literacy Coalition is a sort of Fellowship of Fact that fights the spread of falsehoods in the public space in Bulgaria. The coalition unites organizations and individuals working in media, education, IT, internet security, and civic education.

As early as 2013, Emiliyan and Teodor started commuting to Vratsa on weekends to give free programming classes to small groups. In 2015, with Iliyan on board, they took the plunge, and now as the team of Vratsa Software Community, they began building Vratsa’s nascent IT community in earnest.

While it’s important to celebrate the connectivity and access digital technologies provide, we must ensure that everyone is included and our rights are protected online, says Nadia Shabani, director of the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law, the largest expert organization supporting the work of Bulgarian nonprofits.

The weather updates provided by Look!, the first site for child-friendly news in Bulgaria, will not only keep the domestic peace but will also turn the weather forecast into something to look forward to!

Bulgarian educators are slowly shifting their thinking about technology, and this transformation is happening largely thanks to the work of one organization — the Center for Creative Training.