Dream Foundation: Three exceptional ladies

1 January 2010
Eugenia Stoyanova

Zorka Aphusova

Galina Kubratova M.Sc, Ps.D

These three exceptional ladies have valuable and rich experience with international adoptions. Galina Kubratova is Director while Zorka Aphusova and Eugenia Stoyanova were Members of a Team organized as Advisory Office for prospective adoptive parents and adoptive parents. This Advisory Office operated during the period 2000-2003 on the territory of Sofia and three other big cities in Bulgaria. That was the only and unique project carried out ever in Bulgaria. For its three years of existence the Advisory Office provided counseling to tremendous number of prospective and adoptive parents.
These three professionals practice in the field of international adoptions. Zorka Aphusova has been Director of Orphanage “Nadejda” in Sofia since 1993 and as such she helped dozens successful international adoptions by monitoring, facilitating and following them. Even more, she keeps track of her former alumni’s development even today and observes the main problems arising after completion of adoptions as well as the tools to resolve them. Eugenia works at the Orphanage “Nadejda” too (since 1998). She provides one-on-one services to the children who are in process of international adoption and corrects their multiple problems, such as speech, auditory, intellectual and developmental ones. Galina Kubratova is operating Medical Psychologist and Therapist and both children and parents are within the scope of her patients. Galina was also a lecturer in Developmental Psychology in the Department of Social and Personal Psychology at the SofiaUniversity. She is author of over 40 publications in national newspapers and is a court expert with rights on independent psychological evaluation.
Zorka, Galina and Eugenia are co-authors of a manual forstudents of pedagogy – “Integrated Education Project”, in twoparts – “Theory” and “Empirism”, published in 2001 and 2003, which deals with the problems of education of children with specific educational needs (hearing, speech, intellectual problems, etc.).
Zorka is also co-author of monographical collection "Orientation, Motivation, Adaptation - "Hope" Ideological Project (Patterns for socialization of children with different family status). This collection summarizes long-lasting research experience of the team at Orphanage "Nadejda" regarding integrated socialization of children at age 3-7.