The Valya Krushkina Fund is part of the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation and was established on September 1, 2012 by Valya Krushkina’s brother Ventsislav Krushkin and Virginia Vladimirova, in memory of journalist Valya Krushkina, a long-time employee of BNT, who died in June 2012.

The Valya Krushkina Fund is part of the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation and it was established on September 1, 2012 by her brother Ventsislav Krushkin and Virginia Vladimirova, in memory of journalist Valya Krushkina, a longtime BNT staffer who died in June 2012. Valya Krushkina was known as a dignified and objective journalist working in the field of energy, economy and social issues. Since April, colleagues, relatives and friends joined a fundraising campaign to send the journalist abroad for medical treatment. Sadly, she died in a hospital in Turkey a few days before the biggest action called “Valya Krushkina Day” on June 21, in which national and regional media planned to do stories about the journalist to help and be sympathetic.

Establishing a fund in memory of someone is a return to a forgotten tradition of Bulgarian philanthropy, a common practice in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.

At present, the Valya Krushkina Fund is the only such fund operating in Bulgaria.

The founders donated the unspent, donated funds for Valya’s treatment and dedicated them to causes that Valya herself believed in and defended. The fund has two main goals – to support the treatment of children with cancer and to encourage and support courageous Bulgarian journalism with a human face.

To achieve these goals, the Valya Krushkina Fund:

1. It will provide financial support to children with cancer;

2. It will implement various programs and initiatives aimed at the development of Bulgarian journalism;

3. Will establish annual awards for journalists “Valya Krushkina – Journalism for the People”;

4. Fund and organize educational programs for journalists, including scholarships for young journalists;

5. It will organize volunteer initiatives, including “21 June – Valya Krushkina Day” (the day on which the largest fundraising campaign for Valya should have been held, which she did not live to see);

The fund is managed by an 11-person Public Council, consisting of:

Members at Law:

Ventsislav Krushkin, Founder

Virginia Vladimirova, Founder and

Monika Hristova, Member of the Board of Trustees

Iliana Nikolova, Executive Director of FRCI

and members elected by the Founders:

Dobrina Cheshmedjieva,

Radosveta Stamenkova,

Krasimira Velichkova,

Pavlina Filipova,

Theodora Todorova,