Plamena Solakova (YES 2009-2010, Bulgaria, hosted by PAX in Richland, WA)has quite the impressive resume to reflect her passion for human rights. An alumna of the Kennedy-Lugar YES program, Plamena went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Politics and a Masters degree at the Paris School of International Affairs in International Security, Intelligence, and Middle East studies. Despite her busy academic schedule, she has also participated in a number of different classes, volunteer work, workshops, and alumni activities that exposed her to the different realities of human rights violation and further encouraged her to remain dedicated to a path of empowering women and conquering human rights for women and minority groups. 

Since becoming a YES alumna, I participated in the 2015 transformational leadership training in Albania and subsequently formed a project on human trafficking awareness at a high school in Bulgaria. In 2016, I engaged in social entrepreneurship training in Macedonia and then a project training youth from the Youth Bank charity in Silistra, Bulgaria on the concepts of social entrepreneurship. I was a mentor for the human rights and gender equality group at the IDEAL workshop (2017) in Montenegro. I also received a YES grant this year for $2,398 USD for a project on female entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. This will take place from September 8th to the 12th (2017). I recently organized a small meet-up for alumni in London which is where I currently reside. Most of my projects take place in Bulgaria and are either run by me or in collaboration with other alumni or humanitarians.

To the left: Plamena and her peers at working on the human trafficking awareness project in Silastra, Bulgaria.

I was drawn to the topic of women’s rights 3 years ago when I was interning at the Henry Jackson Society in London where I was researching honor-based violence against women. The report we produced ended up at the Prime Minister's office! In the same summer, I started my blog which originally focused on violence against women and female empowerment, but it quickly expanded to include gender equality and women's' rights. I've been blogging for the past three years and have reached over 30,000 reads on my posts. I also published articles on media outlets such as the Opinion Panel UK and Girls' Globe. In my university's magazine, I published multiple pieces on human trafficking in the European Union. My dissertation, and a YES project from a few years ago, concentrated on the same issue.

I find it fascinating that nearly no one is talking about human trafficking even though it's the third most profitable trade business in the world (after drugs and weapons)! In- between my writings and awareness projects, I was selected as a Women Deliver fellow, which is a U.S.-based NGO working on women's rights internationally. I trained with them for two years online and attended their annual conference last year in Denmark. It was the biggest international event on women in the last decade! I try to always include a female component to my YES projects. For example, the project in September involves teaching 15 girls about entrepreneurship and business skills and includes a final conference with female entrepreneurs in my region. Lastly, I had an absolute blast as a mentor at the IDEAL workshop in Montenegro two weeks ago. My co-mentor and I led the human rights and gender equality group of participants and discussed issues around history and theory of human rights, gender equality, LGBTQ rights and mental health and people with disabilities. It was one of the most valuable mentoring experiences I've had and the participants were beyond amazing!

Plamena with the the President's Advisor on Human Rights at the IDEAL workshop hosted by American Councils in Montenegro in August 2017.

Lastly, I've worked with the Red Cross for six years in Bulgaria and one year in the U.S. while I was there for my exchange year. After my year on program, I received a Presidential Volunteer Service Award from former President Obama for completing 100+ hours of volunteer service.

Congratulations on all of your efforts and accomplishments, Plamena!