Chris and the Most Inspiring Way to Celebrate Your Birthday during Coronavirus

Inspired by Bogomil Balkansky, young Bulgarian Christian Stoychev organized a fundraising campaign for his birthday to support Teach For Bulgaria 

Due to the pandemic, it is very complicated to get together with friends and celebrate your birthday with a big party, especially if you are an active young professional, born and raised in Bulgaria, but currently living and working in London. However, people tend to get very creative when faced with restrictions and limitations in their search for new ways to add value and have meaningful experiences. This is precisely why Christian Stoychev, who’s lived in the UK for 8 years now, decided to celebrate his birthday by organizing a Teach For Bulgaria fundraiser. This allowed him to show his support for a cause he truly believes in and unite his friends in his deepest convictions.

“I wanted to support a Bulgarian organization which works in education because I believe that this is one of the few causes which make the world a better place. All scientists searching for the cures of rare diseases, coming up with new inventions or innovative businesses were once students,” Chris shared more about what motivated him to support Teach For Bulgaria.

The young Bulgarian has worked in finance for 5 years now, he has gained experience in technology and development, and has also invested in private companies with big potential. Besides work, he is currently learning AI programming and Chinese and claims to be taking full advantage of any available entertainment opportunities during the pandemic.

Chris picked Teach For Bulgaria inspired by other donors from all over the world who support Teach For Bulgaria’s mission. One of them is entrepreneur Bogomil Balkansky who organizes a mass donation matching campaign in support of Teach For Bulgaria every year. 

“I was impressed by the people who support the organization from all over the world and by how diverse and successful they are in their careers. What also mattered a lot to me was the professionalism and drive Teach For Bulgaria’s team demonstrated in our initial emails and conversations,” added Chris.

To him, as someone who finished high school in Bulgaria and then graduated from one of the top universities for economics in the world, another reason to support Teach For Bulgaria and to care about Bulgarian education in general are the results from international surveys like PISA and the World Bank’s annual reports which indicate that Bulgarian education is ineffective and way below the level of more developed countries. This is why besides the fundraising campaign Chris has also decided to support Teach For Bulgaria by providing mentorship to teachers and students. In his role as a mentor he’ll be able to share his experience in programming, finance, and career orientation. He can also help students practice their English language skills.

“I am a firm believer in the importance of 21st-century skills such as teamwork or problem solving because the world is changing very rapidly and our current public school education system might not be able to prepare students for life after graduation,” concluded Chris.

Find out how to celebrate with a cause here or if your birthday isn’t any time soon, how to challenge yourself for a cause. 

Find out more about Bogomil Balkansky’s matching donations campaign here.