Meet Velingrad’s Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Few girls from the Roma neighborhood in Velingrad finish high school, and even fewer go on to study at university. Yet, since she was a little girl, Rashka Gaitanova knew she didn’t want to be part of the statistics: she imagined a different life for herself. Her dream was to become a doctor and help others. Her parents supported her, but the scarce family budget would not have been enough to cover the additional biology and chemistry classes she needed to pre- pare for the medical school entrance exams.
Rashka’s dream came true thanks to support from the Trust for Social Achievement, estab- lished in 2012 by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.
The Trust for Social Achievement encourages the economic participation of the most disadvan- taged communities through early education programs, improved school readiness and grad- uation rates, entrepreneurship and professional training opportunities, and housing support. “I think Confucius said that if you do what you love, you don’t really have to work. I completely agree,” she says. “It is wonderful being able to give others hope. Serving people makes me really happy.”
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