Success Stories

Community Fund mobilizes public and private resources to address local problems

The Future for Children with Disabilities Association serves children with disabilities and their families.

Camp for ethnic Roma and Bulgarians resonates with a whole community.

USAID credit guarantee helps the city of Montana make its main thoroughfare safer.

Microcredit helps Roma entrepreneur with crucial step in his business development.

Small loans from a USAID micro-lending program give Genoveva and Assen the opportunity to expand and to plan for the future.

Get-out-the-vote campaigns continue to energize voters in marginalized communities.

Business Center Serdon is an important part of the USAID legacy in Bulgaria. It provides consulting support to local and foreign companies with a broad range of market entry services.

While corruption remains a serious problem in Bulgaria, the television program “Na Chisto” has helped build popular support for transparency and accountability within public institutions.

Bulgarian organization displayed commitment to disabled IT users as it went from trainee to trainer. Back in 2003, Bulgarian telecenters participated in a USAID introductory workshop on information technology for people with disabilities. In 2007, the Telecenter Association organized its own workshop for disabled users and their support organizations.

“I believe in young people. We have to help them make their dreams come true here in Bulgaria”, says statistics teacher Mita Georgieva, who helps Junior Achievement Bulgaria introduce its entrepreneurship programs at Bulgarian schools.

The Sofia-based NGO "Eyes on Four Paws" opened the first school for guide dogs for the blind in Bulgaria. Two trained dogs have already been handed over to their new owners in Plovdiv and Harmanli for a symbolic 75 cents.

Peace Corps Volunteer Trevor Lake shares his experience supporting a community project to improve health care for rural citizens. "The key I have found is to listen to the community members and to help turn their ideas and suggestions into reality."

The Gabrovo Community Fund was established under the USAID Community Funds and Social Enterprises (CFSE) program in 2002. Thanks to the Fund’s fundraising efforts and the contributions of individuals, businesses, and institutions, the Gabrovo Hospital was significantly refurbished in the last 4 years.

Participants from all 10 schools in Blagoevgrad submitted more than 150 posters and paintings and over 60 essays and poems in a contest entitled "Kids Against Violence." All entries were displayed in the lobby of the City Hall.

Improved lighting at mosque and church brightens eastern Bulgarian town. Partners-Targovishte Association initiated the "Svetlina" ("Light") project which united the efforts of the municipality, the church and mosque boards, and local NGOs to illuminate the spiritual centers of Targovishte.

The purposeful work of the USAID Community Funds Program and Participant Training Program left behind a national Association of Community Foundations in Bulgaria that will ensure the sustainability of its members.

Local Roma NGO and Peace Corps Volunteer take an abandoned building and turn it into a learning center filled with opportunities.
The Educational and Informational Center for Children and Parents was officially opened on October 11, 2006 in the southern Bulgarian town of Rakitovo.

Nonpayment of electricity bills by residents in the neighborhood was a growing problem with no apparent solution. New payment plans agreed upon as a result of a roundtable organized by the local mediation center that involved all interested parties in discussing the problem have made it easier for residents to pay off debts.

Travel company Odysseia-In organizes adventure and cultural tours, conducts educational and tourism development activities, and operates two outdoor stores in Sofia. Since founding Odysseia-In, Lubomir Popiordanov worked with several USAID programs.

The Day Center "From Us, For Us" provides services and care to disabled people to bring them out of isolation. Disabled people of different ethnic origins from Kardzhali and neighboring villages have a cozy place to meet and socialize.

The project preserves a visual chronicle of the colorful lifestyle and customs of the Roma who live in Kardzhali’s Borovets district through organizing photography classes for 18 people. For ten months the young participants learned about the history of photography, techniques of taking pictures, composition and lighting.

Lawyer Katilin Popov participated in all phases of the reform process and is confident that commercial law reform in Bulgaria has been successful.

All kinds of people request our services. Not only big business, but many small creditors come to us for enforcement on sums as small as $150. We’ve never sent anybody away, says Mr. Popov.

Children from the small Bulgarian town of Momchilgrad who participate in the “Beyond Difference” project funded by the USAID Interethnic Interaction Program are shy but proud when they say they know more about other religions than their fellow students or even their parents.

A few years ago Yumer Salim almost had to close his business in the small Bulgarian town of Momchilgrad. Thanks to a USAID grant, the Egeya-Yumer Salim apparel factory today employs 12 people and supplies uniforms to hospitals throughout Bulgaria and to a Greek company.

Mussel Farmer Vesselin Prokopiev Carves Out a Niche on the Black Sea Coast.
Tucked away in a quiet cove framed by rocky cliffs on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast, the Dalboka Restaurant offers guests stunning sunsets over the water and a tranquil atmosphere.

Until recently none of the inhabitants of the five Roma neighborhoods in the town of Dupnitsa could enjoy public Internet access. Thanks to the efforts of local Roma entrepreneur Georgi Georgiev, the Roma from the neighborhood “Gizdova mahala” now have their first Internet club.

In 2005, Krasimira Lazarova was looking for ways to support her goal of building a social integration center for mentally disabled and HIV-positive individuals. After attending a USAID-sponsored workshop she drew up a business plan that would help her reach her goal.
“We are successful because we have a clear goal. We have drawn up our strategy and pursued it step by step, overcoming challenges and difficulties,” Krasimira Lazarova, Health and Ethics Association Chairwoman, Stara Zagora.

In 2004, USAID piloted a personal computer digital audio recording system in two Bulgarian courtrooms. In 2005 and 2006, the USAID Judicial Strengthening Initiative expanded the recording system to six additional courtrooms in Bulgaria.

As the water began to recede, homes were reduced to piles of rubble.

USAID Trains Over 2,000 at Community-Run Computer Centers

USAID provides essential consultancy services to small and medium sized enterprises