"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

We are starting the year with a cause to support women with breast cancer and people with cancer from the city of. We are looking forward to helping people with breast cancer and breast cancer in Bulgaria. We are inspired by their belief that by creating a supportive community of friends, through creativity and shared joys, they overcome illness and difficult times. Fear is a natural regular companion of a cancer diagnosis. One of the ways cancer patients counteract fear is joy, and smiling is a universal tool for unlocking it.

That's what the social enterprise Paint Me a Smile is working to do - replace the fear and regret that the topic of cancer often evokes with a smile. The enterprise gives people with cancer in remission a chance to find an environment where they can realise their skills, communicate and socialise, and feel useful and satisfied with their work. The people who put their voluntary labour into the enterprise make hand-painted products, textiles and clothing, and embroidered accessories. The working environment and mutual support give the workers self-confidence in being useful and creating beauty, and social integration and human closeness are an integral part of the recovery process.

The enterprise was established by the Association "Cancer Patients and Friends" in Burgas in 2015 and the profit from the sale of the products is used for the activities of the association, which are offered free of charge to cancer patients and their relatives in the day centre of the association. Activities include psychotherapy, art therapy for adults and children, music therapy, specialized rehabilitation and lymphedema, folk dancing, green schools, detoxification, seminars and educational courses.

How can we help?

In 2015, Paint Me a Smile won a project for the best business plan of a social enterprise, thanks to which 15 people worked in the enterprise, 8 of them disadvantaged. After completion of the project, the enterprise was supported by Burgas Municipality with salary subsidies for 8 people until the end of 2022. Since then, the enterprise relies on 1 person on contract and 4 volunteers to continue its activities.

The main income of the enterprise is from the production and sale of embroidered embroidery products, for which they have demand from all over the country. It currently has 2 embroidery machines with a total of 4 heads, but in order to increase productivity and build sustainability, it needs another embroidery machine with 4 heads, which we will provide.

The end goal is:

• Maintain operations and increase sales revenue to maintain free access to the association's services.

• More attractive and competitive products thanks to the new embroidery machine, which will expand the range of embroidery and increase their customer reach.

• Maintain a working environment of a minimum of 8 people, enabling people who have heard the difficult diagnosis of cancer to feel useful and fulfilled.

The target amount we are aiming for is £15,290 :

If we raise less than the target amount, we will purchase a 3 head embroidery machine and if we exceed the target amount, we will provide 2 2 head machines.