Bulgaria Community Board in action

The TELUS International Bulgaria Community Board has donated $800,000 since 2015 to 149 grassroots projects, charities and organizations.

Ivanka Shalapatova (Chair)

Executive Director of ‘For Our Children’ Foundation

Ivanka Shalapatova, PhD is the Executive Director of ‘For Our Children’ Foundation. She is the first Bulgarian executive director of the British organization "The European Children's Trust" in 2000.

Shalapatova has participated in the management of three networks – in SEECRAN – Southeast Europe, in the global IFCO – specializing in foster care, and NGO Group for the CRC, which brings together organizations from around the world working on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In these networks, she has developed an understanding of managing the complex processes of lobbying and advocacy for children’s rights in an international and intercultural context, as well as ensuring publicity and quality financial management and sustainability.

The former Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Policy in 2013, she has a Master of English and Bulgarian philology with specializations in Great Britain, Germany and Hungary. Shalapatova has defended a doctorate in social sciences with a dissertation on "EU policies for education and care for young children and their implementation in Bulgaria."