Lena Karnalova is Founder and Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bulgaria, a public-benefit NGO established in 2006 and official affiliate of Big Brothers Big Sisters International. She has nearly 20 years of experience in developing structured one-to-one mentoring programmes for children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, promoting volunteering as a tool for social inclusion and active citizenship. Lena is a Board Member of the Centre for European Volunteering (CEV) and a member of the Advocacy Committee of Mentoring Europe. She actively contributes to European policy discussions on volunteering, mentoring and youth participation, and leads numerous Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corps initiatives strengthening civil society capacity across Europe.