site.btaUPDATED Enlightener of the Decade Campaign Presents Finalists in Sofia

The finalists in the Enlightener of the Decade campaign were presented here on Saturday in the presence of most of the nominees. The results of the voting for the campaign will be announced on National Awakeners Day, November 1, when two special prizes will also be awarded by the Bulgarian National Radio and bTV.

THE NOMINEES

Minko Balkanski is a professor of physics. He was born in 1927 in the village of Oryahovitsa, Southern Bulgaria. He enrolled at Sofia University at the age of 15. He graduated from the National School of Chemistry in Bordeaux. He became a doctor of sciences at the age of 27 and a professor of physics a year later. After 1993, Balkanski became active in helping science and education in Bulgaria, establishing the Minu Balkanski Foundation, in his father's name. The foundation's activities include improving the professional competence of computer science teachers, as well as supporting gifted Bulgarian children.

Writer Georgi Gospodinov is the first Bulgarian to win the International Booker Prize for his novel Time Shelter. He was born in Yambol on January 7, 1968. Graduated in Bulgarian Philology at Sofia University. His poems have been included in a number of international anthologies, including New European Poets. Gospodinov's first novel, Natural Novel, has been published in 21 languages. His second novel, The Physics of Sorrow, won the 2013 Bulgarian Novel of the Year Award from the 13 Centuries of Bulgaria National Endowment Fund.

Ivo Ivanov is a Bulgarian writer, journalist and basketball coach who has been living in the USA for 30 years. He has published three books of stories based on real events - The Curve of Happiness, Beyond the Game and A Chronicle of Pain. His books tell the stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary situations.

Nikola Rahnev is the founder of the Gorata.bg afforestation initiative. The idea for the initiative was born in 2011, and its first mass tree planting event took place two years later. The NGO's community has planted over 2,000,000 trees. The organization donates hundreds of thousands of trees every year to municipalities, beekeepers and kindergartens. Rahnev's activities are gradually expanding to other areas. The Hugs from Bulgaria House sheltered dozens of Ukrainian war refugees in 2022. Rahnev was also involved with helping flooded villages in the Karlovo region, as well as people affected by the earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria.

Evgenia Peeva-Kirova and Trayan Trayanov are the driving force behind the Teach for Bulgaria Foundation. Peeva-Kirova holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics, Political Science and Sociology from Harvard University and a Master's degree in Educational Management from Paisii Hilendarski University of Plovdiv. She was granted the Young Manager of the Year Award in 2018. Trayanov holds a BA in Social Sciences from Harvard University and an MA in Sociology from the University of Cambridge.

Stephan Komandarev is a film director, producer and screenwriter. He produced the documentaries Bread Over the Fence, Alphabet of Hope, The Town of Badante Women, Life from Life, as well as the feature films The Judgment, Rounds and more. His film The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner (2008) is the first Bulgarian production selected to advance to the next round of voting in the Foreign Language Film category for the Academy Awards. Directions (2017) was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. Komandarev's latest film, Blaga's Lessons, won the Crystal Globe for Best Film at the 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Lazar Radkov organizes the Caps for Future campaign. In 2017, he launched the 30 under 30 campaign in an attempt to motivate one million Bulgarians to exercise every day for 30 days. Thousands of Bulgarians have participated in the Caps for Future initiative by collecting tonnes of plastic caps and thus raising money to purchase incubators and ambulances for hospitals across the country.

Darin Madzharov founded the Ucha.se educational website. He was born in Dryanovo, North Central Bulgaria. In 2011 he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electronics and Computer Science from Jacobs University, Germany. The same year, the idea of a platform to help pupils was born. Madzharov initially recorded over 550 video lessons on math, physics, chemistry, biology and English on his own. As of 2021, there are more than 24,000 video lessons, quizzes and other materials on the Ucha.se website and application.

Stefan Ivanov and Maxim Ivanov are the first Bulgarians to cross the Atlantic by rowing alone. They set out on an adventure in a boat made in their garage. The voyage lasted over 80 days. Stefan and his son Maxim used their story to raise awareness about organ donation. The two are behind the campaign "Yes! For Life," which promotes organ donation and transplantation. The father-son duo has created a citizens' initiative that lobbies for amendments to the Organ, Tissue and Cell Transplantation Act, because in Bulgaria explicit consent is still required from potential organ donors. They are also the authors of the book Neverest, which tells the story of their ocean adventure.

Alek Aleksiev is actively involved in society, participating in civic initiatives and activities of the Teach for Bulgaria Foundation, which aims to facilitate access to quality education, and the Cedar Foundation, which cares for disadvantaged children and adults. He is also involved with the activities of Foundation Za Dobroto, which has started a fund for the children of the doctors, medics and paramedics who died during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a producer of the UNICEF documentary Childhood 2.0, which follows the stories of four Ukrainian families who sought refuge in Bulgaria after the start of the war.