Winners of the first social entrepreneurship contest received commendations on May 27th.

The competition was co-organized by Kazan University, Non-profit microfinance organization “Entrepreneurship Support Foundation” and Regional Social Projects Fund “Our Future”.

Present at the ceremony were Vice-Rector for Innovation of KFU Andrey Artemyev, Minister of Labor of Tatarstan Elmira Zaripova, and Executive Director of “Our Future” Foundation Yuliya Zhigulina.

The contest was open for all universities of the Republic of Tatarstan, but in the end all five winners appeared to hail from Kazan University.

One of them, Dmitry Leontyev, started a dance studio for orphaned minors; the studio trains the kids and organizes events for them. Murat Dimitrov founded the Green Fitness project that offers free training for city people at two local parks. Regina Minnebaeva’s startup is a little production team that creates live postcards with real flowers.

The award ceremony coincided with a certificate handover for the students of Social Entrepreneurship courses. They are offered in collaboration by Kazan University, Entrepreneurship Support Foundation of Tatarstan, and Center for Social Innovation of Tatarstan.