The Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe List: The 300 Top Young Leaders, Inventors and Brash Entrepreneurs, spanning ten diverse categories includes four Bulgarian names. Ekaterina Karabasheva and Hristo Tenchev are in the Social Entrepreneurs category – an elite group of accomplished leaders. Andrey Novakov and Eva Paunova are in the Policy category.

Ekaterina Karabasheva has been living and studying in Berlin for seven years. She has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Media and Communications. Ekaterina received high commendation for her work on the project Jourvie – an application offering treatment techniques and motivational strategies for people with eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. One study shows that out of 10,000 women in several European countries, 3 percent of girls and women aged 15 to 24 are affected by anorexia. The affliction is most widespread in Austria, Italy, Ireland and France.

But this is not Ekaterina’s first achievement – her team has received several awards for their work in Germany:

“This is really good news, it came as a surprise but also as recognition of my own work and the work of my team for this cause,” says Ekaterina Karabasheva. “On the other hand it also comes as recognition for Bulgaria – I am so proud there are three other Bulgarian names in the Forbes’ list because this just goes to show that we Bulgarians can achieve so much, wherever in the world we may be.”

The idea to build the application came out of Ekaterina’s own experience, her struggle with anorexia and with the different problems she encountered during therapy:

“The application takes different elements of the therapy and digitalizes them, making them easier of access to the young group of patients. Elements like keeping a food diary to note down what one has eaten, how one feels afterwards, what thoughts go through one’s head. Other elements involve motivation strategies. Unfortunately, to this day a large part of the therapy is on paper – i.e. all of these elements, diaries and strategies are written down on paper which is not very practical and could, at times, be less than discrete. That is why a smartphone application is actually a very good way to have all of these elements close at hand in very discrete form. The application has been available for around a year and users say it is extremely useful. For some time now we have had increasingly favourable feedback from therapists who have noticed patients of theirs wanting to use the application; the therapists themselves say they want to use the programme.”

26-year old Ekaterina is currently consulting different health projects. She says this is the sphere she wants to continue to develop in. But she also wants to go on with her work in support of people with eating disorders and especially Bulgarian patients.

“I would be happy to come in contact with organizations in Bulgaria, with the efforts in this sphere, to work on projects with them.”

The advice she would give young entrepreneurs in Bulgaria is to have faith in themselves, in their ideas and to never give up, whatever the initial obstacles:

“It is a wonderful thing to have the support of family and friends, but there are times when there is lack of understanding, and when that happens it is important to remain true to oneself and to continue work for the things one believes in,” says Ekaterina.

English version: Milena Daynova