Veselin Trendafilov, Stefan Hristov and Gancho Iliev from our partner “Sviat bez granitsi” Stara Zagora we visited on site several proposal for initiatives.

The first proposal was in Aitos and concerned the purchase of an electricity generator. The applicant together with his family were dealing with selling vegetables, clothes, ice cream and home accessories in market fairs across the country. During our conversation with the applicant, his father and grandfather at the market where they were selling vegetables, I noticed their realistic assessment of their needs and they were very resourceful. They already possessed an electricity generator but with small capacity unable to supply the necessary amount of electricity. They had already looked through the stores for a suitable generator and had found one in Burgas. The price of the chosen generator was 1199 leva. The applicant was sure that with the income they had, they would be able to pay their installments without problems and to develop the business further. Subsequently the applicant would like to apply again for financing of the purchase of donut making machine. This proposal for initiative was assessed as very good and we granted the partner to check all the papers of the equipment, if there’re not any obstacles to implement the initiative in the scheme 399 leva own contribution and 800 leva from the initiative fund. The proposal for the purchase of donut making machine would be reviewed on later stage.

Afterwards we visited town Kamenovo, where we met with the proposal for the purchase of bee hives. The applicant was dealing with beekeeping, and ran a café and food store in Kamenovo. He intended to increase the number of bee hives. At the moment he had 32 bee hives, situated outskirts of the town in his own property. There was enough free land on the property for the new hives, as it would be sufficient for the 18 hives the applicant intended to buy. We reassured ourselves that the applicant was familiar with the terms of beekeeping and the regulatory norms regarding hygiene and the distance of objects under protection. The applicants did not meet the program’s criterias.

The next proposal concerned the purchase of a tractor. The applicant had 12 dka orchard gardens – almonds. The plantation was young – approx. 2 years old but the property was well maintained and fenced with barbed wire. The applicant had already found a tractor second hand from a trusted importer from Stara Zagora. The seller offered 3 years warranty. The tractor had 50 h.p and cost only 7 600 leva which included as well the inventory – cutter and plow with attachment. The initiative was good. We discussed with the partner financial scheme as follows 5 000 leva from the fund and the rest 2 600 would be own contribution. The recommendation we gave our partner was to check the papers and the tractor, if there aren’t any obstacles and available funds to implement the initiative.

The forth proposal for initiative concerned the purchase of bee offsets. The applicant had 30 empty bee hives as for 20 of them he would like to start bee keeping. The price of the offset was around 100 leva. In order to implement the initiatives it’s necessary first to order the workmanship of the offsets in advance. We instructed our partner Gancho Iliev to check the alternatives for the custom making of offsets if there’re enough available funds.

Together with Veselin Trendafilov we checked the implemented initiative for the purchase of food store equipment in Kameno. The food store was fully supplied. The beneficiary was investing in the development of the business. He had done additional assembled structure for selling grilled food, roasted chicken, etc. The owner shared with us that in the past winter he had slight decrease in the turnover, but was confident that next month there would be an increase profit due to the return of the workers from abroad.

The next initiative we checked was the one for the purchase of tiller from Aleksi Simeonov in v. Dabovo. We visited on site the beneficiary and checked the usage of the supplied machine. The beneficiary shared that the same day he had used the equipment on his agricultural property. He was pleased with his purchased.