Optimism for Bulgaria

Participants in ABF’s LEAP program come from different fields but found ample common ground and a shared vision — of a better Bulgaria for all.

A dirty river canal, a graffitied back alley, and a parking lot’s rooftop are no one’s idea of good places to hang out. No one except The Collective’s.

“Since I can remember, I have been digging into the past,” writes journalism fellow Katerina Vasileva in an essay that explores her interest in history and the relationship between democracy and memory.

Radoslav Aleksandrov, of the Media E:volution program’s first class, writes eloquently about finding community in a group of soccer fans. “True community brings connection, not division,” he says.

On Belene.Camp, anyone with an internet connection can go back in time and speak to a survivor of a communist-era labor camp in Bulgaria. In technology-mediated conversations that roughly resemble video calls, survivors answer questions about their time in the camps, share details about their lives before and after incarceration, and engage in debate about the merits of democracy versus other forms of government.

On June 18, the renowned Bulgarian writer and basketball coach will lead fans in a charity basketball practice supporting the Festival for Arts and Rights Civic Alarm Clock.

The schoolyard of Ivan Vazov School in Pomorie is open to the public. The school’s openness has its downsides, as Ms. Elena Koeva’s second-grade class found out last year.

The seven mothers making up Za Dobroto Foundation are united in their commitment to improving the physical environment in children’s hospitals and overhauling pediatric care in Bulgaria. They named their hospital renewal project Firefly.

Checkpoint Cardio’s innovative medical solution has averted hundreds of preventable deaths and thwarted disease progression in thousands of patients on four continents.