Balkan Sports Development Association
Yavor Peshleevski
Yavor is the founder of BSDA. He was a professional athlete in Modern Pentathlon for more than 15 years with numerous medals from national and international competitions, including European Championships, World Championships and Youth Olympic Games. One of his most prominent successes is bringing Bulgaria a historical bronze medal from the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Mexico 2018. Yavor holds a Bachelor degree in Public Administration and is yet to receive a Masters diploma in Law. He holds a GDPR certificate and is fluent in English.
Yavor and Maya are managing various international projects in which Bulgarian Athletic Federation is a partner, a few of them being European Athletics' "I Run Clean" Erasmus + Project, "Athletics 4 Health" and "Athletics Unlimited Games 2022" by the Polish Athletic Federation and others. They are in charge of adapting and implementing a Safeguarding policy at the Bulgarian Athletic Federation, as per World Athletics regulations and with the assistance of European Athletics. Maya and Yavor received their qualification as Safeguarding Officers upon completing a CPD-certified Safeguarding Level 3 Courses for Adults and Children.
Maya Karamarinova - Peshleevska
Maya is the co-founder of BSDA. She has been working as International Relations Expert at the Association of Balkan Athletic Federations (ABAF) since 2018 and International Project Manager at the Bulgarian Athletic Federation since 2020. Her higher education diplomas include a Bachelor degree in Management from the Royal Holloway University in London, UK and a Master degree in Hospitality and Business Management from Hotel Institute Montreux in Montreux, Switzerland. She also spent one year abroad at the ESSEC Business School in France under the Erasmus + Program, specializing in Business. Maya is fluent in English and speaks French and Russian.
What our colleagues say about us...
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Galia Puhaleva, Bulgarian Athletic Federation CEO"Maya and Yavor have taken over the Safeguarding department at the Bulgarian Athletic Federation since November 2022 and have done an impeccable job in both educating themselves and the staff at the federation, as well as in introducing Safeguarding as a concept in athletics in Bulgaria. Their ability to build effective working relationships, advise and support individuals on all levels and work ethic have served as an example for others and prompted their co-workers and friends to act with integrity and respect at work and in their everyday life.
Through demonstrating administrative and management skills, their role in managing Bulgarian Athletic Federation’s partnership in numerous Erasmus + projects on international level have been crucial and significantly contributed to the federation’s development in the European dimension and the formation of new collaborative partnerships."
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Pawel Jesien, Polish Athletic Association Project Manager"The key to success in Erasmus+ projects is a good and reliable Partner. Since the beginning, we work closely with the Bulgarian Athletic Federation and BSDA, our main and strongest Partners. We did two projects together and this year applying for two more. Their support and experience are priceless and allow us to reach for new better projects."
Eliza Nikolova, Chairman of the Board of Directors at PAMB
"Maya and Yavor have completed their certified education on Mediation at the Professional Association of Mediators in Bulgaria (PAMB). From the very beginning of the course, they impressed the audience with a clear vision of the aims they wish to achieve and their ideas for a future implementation of Mediation in their field of expertise- Sport. Their concept is based on placing Mediation as a way to resolve cases in Safeguarding- an idea that is both practical and useful. Safeguarding as a means to protect and Mediation as tool to resolve disputes share common grounds and principles: empowerment, prevention, protection, partnership (in the sense of compatibility and proportionality), transparency… Maya and Yavor have excelled in the Mediation educational course, demonstrating great interest and devotion to the subject. Their skills to listen actively and think analytically have helped them to successfully resolve cases, look at the issues at hand from different points of view and go deeper and more thorough into the cases, while ensuring highest objectivity. Their creativity and persistence will undoubtedly lead them to success in their mission, which had been very clearly set even before the start of the course- implementing Mediation in Safeguarding as an alternative method to resolve disputes. We, as their mentors, fully support this idea and firmly believe that it will be successfully developed, as there is much potential to be explored in Bulgaria and Europe. Maya and Yavor are two competent, energetic and very enthusiastic young people with big potential for development in the field of Mediation and its uplifting on a new higher level. We wish them luck!"