Patronus: Definitely an elephant!

Favourite Quote: “Do it from the heart or don’t do it at all” / “What you risk reveals what you value” – both by Jeanette Winterson’s books!

Nadejda Dermendjieva is Executive Director of the Bulgarian Fund for Women and a feminist activist, writer and journalist. She holds a Master’s degree in Gender Studies from the Sofia University/University of Nottingham, UK (exchange) and in Creative Writing also from the Sofia University. Currently, she is doing her PhD in Feminist Philosophy in the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Since 2009, Nadejda has been working in the sphere of human rights, with a special focus on gender equality and elimination of domestic violence against women and girls. Nadejda graduated from a program in social work in Berlin (2012) and a leadership program in the US (2016), holds numerous certificates from gender trainings and a diploma from the Bulgarian School of Politics. She is co-founder of the charity movement “Million women for million goodnesses“; she is also the author of the book “With no Pain Killers” – collection of short stories based on true cases of gender-based and domestic violence and homophobic crimes. She is very proud that in the summer of 2015 she walked 514 km by feet on the Camino de Santiago way. Nadejda is fluent in Bulgarian, English and Greek and speaks a little bit of Russian as well.