Team
Founders
Elena Kostova
Elena Kostova is the founder of the Future for Bulgaria Foundation. When she established the foundation, she embedded her humaneness, empathy, deep faith in good and in everyone’s right to live their life with dignity in each project, initiative and working team. Being the wife of Ivan Kostov, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister from 1997 to 2001, she developed the Foundation’s activity so as to render support to those social groups which were most affected, namely the children, the elderly and the disabled. After the humanitarian crisis in Bulgaria was overcome, Mrs. Kostova started devoting her efforts to restoring Bulgaria’s cultural and spiritual heritage, reviving Bulgarian literature and enhancing the process of integration of Bulgaria into the European Union.
Krassi Kraus
Mrs. Krassimira Kraus is personally and professionally devoted to the education and development of the children and youth of Bulgaria. Being a teacher with years of experience and an official of the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Kraus has deep insights into the educational environment, the need to love children and to be honest with them and to inspire them to study and to succeed. Perceiving her profession as her vocation, Mrs. Kraus is motivated to dedicate a significant part of her personal time and energy in favour of the talented children and of the children in need supported by the Foundation. She is most joyful and satisfied when she is able to lend someone a hand and to change their life for the better.
Maya Hristova
Maya Hristova is an expert in finances. She has been successfully developing her own business in the field of textile production since the beginning of the nineties. As one of the founders of the Foundation she has actively participated in all initiatives organized by Future for Bulgaria.
Vesselina Hadzhieva
Mrs. Hadzhieva is a construction engineer with additional qualification in management, administration and European integration. She was been a representative in Bulgaria for companies from Israel and France. She has worked for a big manufacturer and was responsible for the contacts with foreign customers and partners and with the respective embassies in Bulgaria. She has cooperated with the Foundation since the very beginning by participating in the work with homes for adolescents and elderly people. She is currently supporting the activities of the Home for Disabled people in Velingrad.
Karamfilka Bakalova
Mrs. Karamfilka Bakalova is an alumna of the Leipzig University. She has owned a private company importing technical equipment since the beginning of the nineties. In the course of her business activities she encountered prominent and established companies in the field, which enabled her to create a useful network of international contacts. She actively contributes to the international initiatives of the Foundation.
Mira Lazarova
Mira Lazarova is a journalist with significant experience in the Bulgarian media. She has been the editor-in-chief of Capital Light, the host of the morning program of the Bulgarian National radio, the news director of the Bulgarian National Television, the lifestyle director of publishing house QM issuing the magazines Amica, Bravacasa and L’Europeo. Currently she is the editor-in-chief of the only magazine for luxury real estates in Bulgaria – Unique Estates Life Magazine.
Slava Stoycheva
Slava Styocheva has lived in Austria for more than twenty-five years. There she completed her education in Behavioural Psychotherapy in the “Austrian Society for Behavioural Therapy”. Simultaneously she obtained qualification as a family and lifestyle therapist and supervisor. At present she works as a therapist with the Lichtblick Association for Family Problems and Psychotherapy in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, and also as a freelancer.
Managing Board
Donka Gurnevska
Donka Gurnevska has been the President of the Future for Bulgaria Foundation since 2010. She has cooperated with the Foundation since its establishment. Succession in the Foundation’s activity is particularly important for the preservation of the embedded values and the accumulated experience. Mrs. Gurnevska works with a lot of love and personal attitude to ensure the high quality of the services rendered by the Future for Bulgaria Foundation in the territory of the city of Plovdiv and to make the Foundation a reliable partner both to its target groups and to the institution it cooperates with.
Krassimira Benova
Krassimira Benova is a specialist in family services for children and families at risk. She has a long-term experience as a social worker in various projects connected with the social integration of young people leaving the institutions. Since 2007 she has been the Director of the St. Anna Daily Center for Disabled Children and Adolescents in Plovdiv. She manages the center where more than 20 children are being educated with a lot of love and devotion, and each child’s social integration and adaptation is a leading principle in her work.
Mina Kostova
Mina Kostova is an engineer by education, entrepreneur by vocation and artist by nature. She is a specialist in the organization and management of business processes who believes that the help and support to others comes with education and chances for development, and not with alms. Her interest in alternative educational methods led her to the conviction that each child and each adult has limitless potential and that every person deserves to live with dignity and according to their possibilities.