It is cold in February and our gardens are wet and muddy. It is not possible to work there with students and trainees. But if students cannot come to us, we go to them. We are happy that, for yet another time, we were able to help students from the Professional Agricultural School in the town of Popovo. The school asked us to involve their students and staff in the process of organising an innovative space for training in entrepreneurship (a simulation for real entrepreneurship). They called this process “Magic from Nature”. We accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Dr Apostol Apostolov visited the school and met with students from 11th grade and their teachers from the disciplines of “Rural Tourism”, “Travel, Tourism and Leisure Time”, ‘’Production of Culinary Products and Drinks”, and “Hotels, Restaurants and Catering”. We all worked on several topics, within the experience and expertise of Botanica Life Foundation, which were seen as helpful for the acquiring of practical skills by the students and the preparation for their future business realisation.

We told them about social entrepreneurship, the demonstration gardens, the training centre, and guest house “BOTANICA”, which together form the activities of Botanica Life Foundation. We were working interactively, and the students and teachers showed vivid interest in the topics discussed.

In this practical training, we covered several important topics, closely related to the disciplines, studied by the students in the school, such as:

• Setting up and management of a social enterprise/social business;

• Production of organic vegetables in a sustainable agriculture farm;

• Management of a guest house in the context developing rural tourism

• “From farm to table” and the “slow food” movement

Our guest, albeit indirectly through an interview on Bulgarian National Radio, was Prof. Mohammad Yunus – a banker, economist, pioneer of micro-crediting, recipient of Nobel Peace Prize. He talked about social entrepreneurship, the challenges of global warming and the uneven distribution of capital around the world.

You can listen to the interview with Prof. Yunus (in Bulgarian) here.

We shared experience, debated, and charted together a better future for people, the region and Bulgaria as whole. We look forward to our new meetings with staff and students from the school!