Different Minds Foundation at 3 months!

We’ve finished our first term!

We’ve learnt a lot, had some wonderful moments of joy, and more than a few moments of disappointment, exhaustion and anxiety.

Here’s how we’ll remember the first three months of our existence:

• After some technical issues, we now have a working website, company emails and documentation, and a bank account. We’ve moved from one website studio to another, from one email service to another, and we’ll probably be changing banks. It’s so much fun! A huge thank you to Victoria Vasileva and Anita Nenova, who created a wonderful website for us, to Hostellation, who host it, and to BIT Mate, who maintain it.
• Our lovely Asya did a brilliant photo shoot for us to spruce up our online presence 🙏
• We had our first face-to-face meeting between the foundation team and the Lesnovo Family-Type Placement Centre. We made plans for the children’s Christmas party in December – food, entertainment, venue. We are also looking for ways to help the three young people who will turn 18 over the next 12 months. We have arranged a driving course for one of the boys and a job as a delivery driver afterwards. We are working on securing a work placement in a bakery for one of the girls. Another boy is still considering what he wants, and we have given him some questions to think about. Here, Silvina Tsvetanova has provided us with fantastic support; she has gone from being our accountant to a source of ideas, contacts, and solutions to all sorts of problems.
• We raised funds for the Iris CSRI in Varna to purchase printing machines and have completed the first order for branded T-shirts! The centre supports 50 children with disabilities, and with these machines they can teach them work skills as well as generate a profit that can be reinvested in therapies.
• With your help, we were also able to renovate the Iris Centre’s courtyard, levelling it out and laying a paved path where there used to be mud. Come spring, there will be plenty of opportunities for outdoor activities for the children.
• The Iris Centre in Varna has also created a cookbook for children, and we have started selling it online, to friends, relatives and businesses. We had a lot to figure out regarding payment methods, logistics and work distribution, and we haven’t optimised our operations yet, but we’ve already sold around 50 books! 🙌
• We had our first team trip and it was brilliant – recharging rather than exhausting – even though we had a six-hour journey each way, and it left us feeling enthusiastic and hopeful 🥰
• We’re compiling a growing list of volunteers whom we’ll be mobilising soon. For the Lesnovo Community Support Centre, we’ve received offers for a manicure course, a sewing course, and mentoring from the Ministry of Defence. Separately, we are being contacted by people who want to do something meaningful and see our cause as their own. We believe that in our second quarter, we will succeed in mobilising these volunteers. 

What we are planning for the second quarter:

1. Online purchase of books and other goods from the website.
2. The option to make donations via the website.
3. Providing biofeedback therapy for 50 children with multiple disabilities at the Iris Centre.
4. Exploring funding options for a training programme for social assistants, or in other words, people to help adults with disabilities in their daily lives. 
5. Recruitment, training and integration of volunteers.
6. Anything else we haven’t thought of yet!

If you’d like to get involved, you can buy the Iris Centre’s children’s cookbook, donate to our campaign for biofeedback therapies, or write to us with questions, ideas or feedback. 

We thank everyone for their support and hope to have an even more fantastic review of our second quarter!