Our team
Arms Wide Open was established in April 2022 by a group of volunteers of different nationalities and professional backgrounds who have been actively involved since the first days of the war in Ukraine in a range of initiatives and organizations to help refugees in Bulgaria. The association employs people of different religious affiliations, cultural identities, and nationalities, including those from conflict countries. These differences influence the work process, mainly in the perceptions of people external to the organization. Still, from our experience, we have proven that these differences primarily bring advantages and contribute to the common cause.
Our team
AnnaHakman
/Chairman and Member of the Management board/
Anna Hakman is an accomplished leader and visionary in the non-profit sector, serving as the CEO of Arms Wide Open since its inception in 2022. With a significant background in management and a passion for social work with vulnerable communities, Anna has been instrumental in driving the organization’s mission. She has a bachelor degree in Mass Communications and is fluent in English (B2), Russian (native) and Bulgarian (fluent). Her innovative approach to fundraising and partnerships has resulted in sustainable projects supported by the private sector as well as by governmental institutions. Under her leadership, the organization won a large-scale project for an Integration Center for Ukrainian refugees, whose implementation begins in autumn 2023, under the auspices of Sofia Municipality and funded by the EEA and Norway Grants.
Credits to Yana Lozeva for the project “Creative Communication” funded by Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria
Vasyl Tretiakov
/Deputy chairman and Member of the Management board/
Vasyl was born in 1984 in Ukraine and grew up in Zaporozhye. In 2001 he moved to Kiev to study and graduated with a master’s in radio engineering. Since 2015 he has been living and working in Sofia. He has two children aged 13 and 16. He works in the field of information technology in the field of systems integration. He is one of the main drivers for the founding of the Arms Wide Open Association and a tireless do-gooder.
Credits to Aleksander Aleksov
Biser Smilenski
/Member of the Management board/
Biser has a master degree in history and has built a 15 years successful political career – starting as member, making it to the deputy chairman of the youth-organization for 4 years and being 7 years secretary general in the social democracy party. During that time he mastered his leadership, organizational, project and people management skills and at the peak of his career he decided to resign and focus on raising his 5 children while managing customer support family business. Passion to work with people and help ones in need led him to join newly formed organization Arms Wide Open in 2022 where he could apply his skills and knowledge. Bulgaria has been historically very welcoming and open to one’s in need – in the last 100 years hosting 6 waves of refugees – Biser believes being a refugee is not a normal state of being and anyone can lose their home and peace at any instance. It is in our hands to help each other feel home and safe as much as possible.
Credits to Yana Lozeva for the project “Creative Communication” funded by Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria
Maria Kacharava
/Founder/
Maria has 12 years experience in people managing and project managing. Her passion is helping people find their strengths and through collaboration achieve set goals in ever changing reality. She has been supporting different initiatives on a personal level but was deeply touched by the struggle of mothers with children forced to leave their home to save their lives. First as a volunteer in Mother Ukraine NGO as transport coordinator she started to dream of doing something more – connecting and helping different NGOs to collaborate and help each other. It led to increase of communication, building trust and several successful projects and founding of Arms Wide Open – an organization which does not split refugees by the country they are coming from but helps adapt, integrate in the society and create connections and support each other.
Credits to Yana Lozeva for the project “Creative Communication” funded by Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria
Natali Todorova
/Founder and Program director/
Natali has more than 15 years of experience working for Bulgarian and International non-profit organizations. She has wide experience in creating, organizing and managing programs, projects and events of various types and scope such as educational programs, youth programs, cultural and mass events, festivals, seminars, student summer camps, conferences, productions. Since 2016 Natali has been the local coordinator of the European educational program The Beit Project working with hundreds of students from Sofia and since 2022 is part of the amazing dream team of Arms Wide Open organization where she takes the responsible position of programs director.
Credits to Yana Lozeva for the project “Creative Communication” funded by Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria
Milena Georgieva
/Founder and Administrative director/
Milena has rich experience working for the community on a voluntary basis through various initiatives. After completing her studies in Political Science over 20 years ago, she was part of the non-profit organization Institute of Liberal Politics focusing on specific problems of the society. This was followed by more than 10 years of background in the corporate sphere, but Milena never stopped participating in different initiatives with main focus on improving the quality of life of vulnerable groups. Back in 2016 Milena participated in the 11th edition of the Reproductive Health Day, and together with a team proposed an important change which aims to help families with reproductive issues. This proposal was accepted 1 year later.
Alexander Marchenko
/Youth Programmes Director/
Throughout his professional career, Alexander has been involved in operations management and has been a key link in a wide range of diverse projects for both children and adults. In 2010 he was the President of the AISEC Moldova Student Council Asem Economic Academy for the activities carried out to unite and improve the skills of students in the field of economics and finance in the global industry. In 2016, I was the project coordinator for the development of international relations in the summer camp project for teenagers aged 12 – 16 years with a capacity – 250 people. For two consecutive years, she coordinated the Open Lips Summer School with a capacity of 90 people in the first year and 120 people in the subsequent year. His fresh and innovative approach allows him to create projects that are effective and have a high level of engagement with the audience.
Credits to Yana Lozeva for the project “Creative Communication” funded by Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria
Liudmyla Ivaniuk
/Financial director/
Liudmila came to Bulgaria at the beginning of the war in Ukraine with her two children. Her children attended a summer camp organized by the Arms Wide Open team. Now she has become a member of this team. Her 15 years of experience in Ukraine in the accounting field will help her to manage the funds related to the successful implementation of projects. Her work experience in Ukraine was related to accounting support of both separate areas and the whole enterprise, which taught her the rules of record keeping, budget planning, communication with employees and other professional qualities that help her to become a worthy part of the team.
Credits to Aleksander Aleksov
Valentyna Solodka
/Head of Pedagogical Team/
Valentyna is Bessarabian Bulgarian from Ukraine. Before the war, she worked at the State University of Intellectual Technologies and Communications, holding the position of deputy dean for educational work. More than 10 years of experience in this field. Thanks to her experience, she boldly offers new ideas and educational programs for our team. Actively engaged in scientific research in the field of telecommunications, has the title of Candidate of Technical Sciences and extensive teaching experience since 2009. Having been in Bulgaria since August 2022, it was with great joy and pleasure that she began working with preschoolers at Arms Wide Open, which helps children adapt to a new country, and learn the Bulgarian language – she loves her teaching job!
Credits to Aleksander Aleksov
Liliya Levitska
/Creative Director/
Liliya graduated from higher education (Odessa State Conservatory) specialising in choral conductor and vocal teacher; Master of Arts. Organiser of cultural and mass events. Head of the House of Culture in Ukraine.
Conducts active cultural, social, and volunteer activities. Participates in various cultural events in Bulgaria. Author of the interactive music and entertainment program “Code of the Nation”. Co-operates with the Yarina Charity Foundation.
Participated in the Charity event of Kateryna Buzhinskaya and Mykhailo Hrytskan in the international tour “Ukraine is You”.
In December 2022 she created the Vocal Children’s Collective “Ukrainian Divosvit” with refugee children from Ukraine. The repertoire includes more than 20 Ukrainian and Bulgarian songs. The children take an active part in concerts and festivals in Sofia and beyond.
Credits to Kristina Zbarskaya