Economic Growth Bulgaria Project #16080

Provide Long-Term Mentors to Disadvantaged Youth

by Step for Bulgaria Foundation

Provide Long-Term Mentors to Disadvantaged Youth

Project Report | Oct 1, 2024
Transforming Lives, One Child at a Time

By Elena Furnadjieva | CEO

Dear Supporters,

We're thrilled to share the incredible progress we've made in our mission to provide Optimal Brain Learning for children with neurological conditions. Your unwavering support has enabled us to expand our reach and positively impact the lives of more children in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Key Highlights:

Increased Demand: The number of parents seeking neuroplasticity lessons for their children has doubled this year, highlighting the urgent need for our services.

Growing Participation: Over the past 4 months alone, more than 280 lessons have been delivered to 14 children, with a 50% increase in regular participants. Due to increased parent demand, the number of lessons has almost doubled compared to the previous 4-month period. This demonstrates the tangible benefits these children are experiencing.

Heartwarming Testimonials: Parents have shared inspiring stories about the remarkable progress their children have made. One parent described significant improvements in their child's communication, motor skills, and overall development. Read their stories here:

"Our son was born way too early. He had multiple complications post birth and as a result - he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was 2.5 years old. Despite engaging with traditional physiotherapy for almost one year, he was hardly moving when we came to our first neuroplasticity lessons a few months ago. He is currently 2 years and 11 months old. He doesn't walk yet, but he started creeping, he can't crawl yet. He is very active with his hands and understands everything we say, but he can't speak. After our third series of neuroplasticity lessons, I notice immense improvement (after each series):

1. After the first series, he started coming on all fours on his own - the prerequisite for crawling.

2. After the second series, he started concentrating on a toy and was eventually able to play with it for 15 minutes!

3. After the third series, he starts uttering his first words, he overcame his fear from drinking esyrt, hr'd holding his bottle alone, which we've been waiting for for almost 3 years now!

For us all of the above is a huge improvement. Our child has changed so much and has developed mentally incredibly over just 3 months. So many things that we've been waiting for to see in him for more than a year suddenly emerged as a result of our learning from and with the neuroplasticity practitioners. Thank you, Lisa and Marina!"

"My son is 2.5 years old, has bilateral hearing loss and has been implanted unilaterally for 9 months. Spastic, unable to use his limbs, unable to sit or walk. I was lucky enough to participate in the last course with Lisa, my son started to move more on his back and move from room to room (yes, very slowly, but purposefully). He is very happy about this, before he could only move in a circle. The way he observes his environment is different. It's hard for me to fully understand what he wants, but we are learning together, thanks for the tips Lisa! Also started making more sounds and talking more in his language. For me personally, this is a huge step and I aim to continue with the advice I learn through engaging with neuroplasticity lessons."

As a result of the increased demand for regular lessons by parents, we're expanding our reach: We're committed to increasing the number of neuroplasticity lessons offered in Bulgaria by bringing more practitioners and securing additional resources for families with financial challenges. Already at the beginning of October, we have full lists of children signed up for at least two practitioner visits per month for November and December. We are working hard to ensure enough practitioners prioritize their visits to Sofia in the coming months and year.

Your Impact: Your generous donations are essential to ensuring that these life-changing programs continue to thrive. By supporting our work, you're helping to provide hope, opportunity, and a brighter future for children with neurological conditions. Please consider making a monthly donation to help us sustain our efforts. Every contribution, no matter the size, makes a meaningful difference.

Thank you for your continued support and belief in our mission. Together, we can create a world where every child has the opportunity to reach their full potential.

Sincerely,

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Jun 4, 2024
Our Impact: Children Start Moving and Talking through Optimal Brain Development Lessons

By Elena Furnadjieva | CEO

Dear Supporters,

Here's a quick update about what we've accomplished in pursuing our mission to offer Optimal Brain Learning for children with various neurological conditions - the updated focus of our long-term program dedicated to developing young people's confidence and independent life skills through adequate mentorship and support.

Over the past 4 months, we have hosted three series of neuroplasticity lessons in Sofia, Bulgaria with experienced practitioners of the Anat Baniel NeuroMovement method in Feb, April and May 2024. The practitioners gave a total of over 150 lessons to:

- 8 children in February

- 7 children in April

- 7 children in May

A total of 9 children are participating continuously in more than one series of lessons and experiencing the cumulative effect of optimal learning on their better movement, communication skills, social interactions, emotional management and intellectual abilities.

Here are some parental testimonials that we received in late May:

"My child is almost 3 years old and still can't walk, talk and was very distracted, tight and stubborn about everything. After the intensive course, already on the third day we noticed a big change. He stood by himself on all fours (something we've been waiting for for so long), he tried to eat alone with utensils and succeeded. He is much calmer and more aware. He is still crawling, but at least 10 times a day he stands on 4 supports. We can't wait for the next courses and I know they will have a positive effect on our child."

"My child is autistic, 8 years old, physically active, but he runs stiffly, he is also not verbal. After the neuroplasticity lessons he usually does new things that he has not tried before, he listens more, he understands more, but also defends his opinions more. He has started to speak new words and has a more adequate response in some situations compared to before. Now he is more focused and patient."

"My child was born far too early. His overall development is delayed. He is 2 years old now. After each intensive course of neuroplasticity lessons, he demonstrates something new. After the last one, he started trying to get up on all fours and even climb stairs by crawling. The most valuable thing for me remains the cognitive and communicative development. He started trying to put/arrange things, to immitate me, to engage with other children on the playground."

Given the positive feedback and demand for parents to continue providing neuroplasticity lessons to children in Bulgaria, we plan to organize monthly intensive courses going forward. Your financial support helps us co-fund children whose parents cannot afford to cover the full number of lessons that their children need.

Thank you for your continued engagement and invaluable support!

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Jan 29, 2024
230+ lessons for children's optimal growth!

By Elena Furnadjieva | CEO

Dear friends,

For over one year now, we have decided to direct our focus to support children at risk for their optimal development and independence through offering neuroplasticity lessons to youth with various neurological conditions. We have shared with you that we launched a microproject on GlobalGiving last fall to support those families of benefitting children who couldn't afford the cost of working with experienced neuroplasticity practitioners.

Thanks to your generous and timely support, we attracted additional funds from GlobalGiving on Giving Tuesday! As a result, we got a little closer to our initial fundraising goal of $8000.

As part of our initiative to support Optimal Brain Learning for children with various neurological conditions, we hosted three series of neuroplasticity lessons in Sofia, Bulgaria with experienced practitioners of the Anat Baniel NeuroMovement method in Sept, Oct and Dec 2023. The practitioners gave a total of over 230 lessons to:

- 8 children in September

- 12 children in October

- 12 children in December

At least 5 of these children are participating continuously in more than one series of lessons and experiencing the cumulative effect of optimal learning on their better movement, communication skills, social interactions, emotional management and intellectual abilities. We are very happy to partner with the Hope for the Little Ones Foundation transitional care houses in Sofia, where the experienced neuroplasticity practitioners worked in Oct and Dec with 0-3 year-old children with various challenges resulting from difficult birth and early life circumstances. The feedback from their caregivers at the "Little Houses" has been very positive - neuroplasticity lessons have helped the babies improve their movement, capacity to engage with the world and levels of energy.

After a full year of regular neuroplasticity lessons series (roughly one every 2 months) that we have organized in 2023, we asked the families who have experienced this work to share feedback and tell us if they'd like for their children to continue getting lessons from experienced neuroplasticity practitioners. 100% of regularly engaged families responded. 75% of them confirmed that they would like their children to receive an intensive series of lessons once every 4-6 weeks in 2024, and the rest opted for once every 3 months.

Here's what the mother of an autism-spectrum boy shares about the impact of neuroplasticity lessons on her son: "My son has had a total of 8 series of 5-10 lessons in the past year. We observe changes in him after every lesson - he does things that he wasn't able to do or he hasn't grasped before. His fine and gross motor skills improved. He senses better his own body and discovers on his own what he's capable of. He manages to fall asleep alone, including in the dark - which was not the case prior to experiencing the neuroplasticity approach. He manages to communicate his wishes and to insist on his will being followed, which he wasn't doing before."

Here's what the mother of a child with a mild form of cerebral palsy shares: "My daughter becomes more energetic, uses more evenly both sides of her body (one of which is typically less mobile and engaged), and discovers new ways to move after each series of lessons. She has improved her speech and capacity to manage and communicate her emotions (at age 3!) as a result of the lessons. We will continue working with neuroplasticity practitioners as this is the best approach we've seen so far to develop her independence and sense of "I can" which every child needs, especially children with inborn neurological challenges like her. This mindset is something no traditional physiotherapy or speech therapy provides nor relies on."

As the microproject on Optimal Brain Learning reached its limited duration, pre-determined by GlobalGiving, and we see continuous need among children and their families to provide optimal brain education, we will soon post a new project dedicated to this activity. In the meantime, we welcome your continued support and engagement here! We are extremely excited and hopeful that our renewed and upgraded focus to provide optimal development and independent life skills to youth is bringing such visible results!

Thank you!

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