The community bade farewell to the outgoing Director of Outreach, David Sasaki and welcomed the new Director Eduardo Ávila.

This year Rising Voices, in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, awarded microgrant funding of up to €2500 to three Egyptian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to train citizen media to underrepresented groups in Egypt so that they can voice their opinions.

Now let us look at some of the notable news of the grantees community we featured in the Rising Voices website in 2010.

Featured Bloggers:

Throughout the year we interviewed bloggers from different Rising Voices projects and here is a list of those features.

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar

• Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
• Olzod Boum-Yalagch from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
• Saki Golafale from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
• Nat Nyuan-Bayjay from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
• Nora Catalina Urquijo from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
• Yesenia Corrales from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
• Edgar Andres Yana Lisme from Voces Boliviana in Bolivia
• Getutza from Blogging The Dreams Project in Romania
• Tahina Rakotomanarivo from FOKO in Madagscar
• Ahmed Awadalla from Exploring Taboos project in Egypt
• Randa AbulDahab from the Women of Minya Day by Day project in Egypt
• Sara Abd Al-Maktari from the Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWMAT) project in Yemen
• Award Winning OLPC (XO) laptops Bloggers from Uruguay – Part 1, Part 2

The New Grantees Of 2010:

• Introduction to Exploring Taboos Project
• Introduction to Mokattam Blog Tales
• Introduction to Women of Minya Day by Day

Barcamps And Conferences:

Otgonsuren Jargal presenting Nomad Green at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile. Image by Krzysztof Pawliszak/GV. CC BY

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 took place in May at Santiago Public Library in the capital of Chile. Four Rising Voices projects were presented during the two days of the summit. Here is a two part report (Part 1, Part 2) highlighting the presentations and the reactions from the members who attended the conference.

Photo of Catalina Restrepo speaking at BarCamp Santa Cruz. Photo used with permission by BarCampSCZ.

Catalina Restrepo of the HiperBarrio project in Medellín, Colombia was invited to speak at BarCamp Santa Cruz, Bolivia in January. The event also featured Hugo Miranda of Voces Bolivianas from Bolivia.

This year members of HiperBarrio were invited to the Campus Party in Colombia and was told to do something different, use the pin hole camera technique to record the activities of CampusBlog.

Contests:

In February the Best Of Malagasy Blogs (BOMBS) 2009 awards were announced. Several bloggers from FOKO, the Rising Voices grantee in Madagascar, won the awards.

Empowerment Of Women:

With the help of a Rising Voices microgrant, the project “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” is teaching blogging to female politicians, activists, and human right workers in Yemen to bring them in global conversation.

Ghaida'a Al Absi, the project leader, says: “EWAMT project is like a candle with other candles, which are lighting up the darkness in Yemen.”

Blogger Ahmad Awadalla of “Exploring Taboos” project conducts sexuality education workshops in Egypt and wrote about discussions about the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with his students.

Language:

Ruben Hilary of Voces Bolivianas project, with some local volunteers of El Alto, Bolivia, established the virtual community Jaqi Aru. The goal of the Jaqi Aru website is highlighting and spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents, which involves translation, use of multimedia and social media tools.

Culture, Travel And Lifestyle:

Bus shaped balloon at the Festival de globos de La Loma 2010

The citizen journalists of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio shared some photos and videos of the Balloon festival of La Loma (Festival de globos de La Loma 2010).

Nine citizen journalists from Nomad Green in Mongolia visited Taiwan to learn more about Taiwan's social and environmental issues and local cultures and receive citizen media training.

Sustainability:

Hiperbarrio from Colombia finally got its legal identity this year as a nonprofit corporation. This allows the organization to continue to grow as they can be hired by public and private institutions for outreach activities. According to an agreement between the EPM Foundation Network and HiperBarrio from Colombia, citizen media outreach activities in 3 new communities in 3 libraries of Medellín (Villatina, La Esperanza and EPM) were started in 2010.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded Ceasefire Liberia project a $10,000 grant to start a new arm called Ceasefire. This project will focus on creating a citizen media project for African immigrant and African-American youth in Staten Island based on the Ceasefire Liberia model.

Thanks to the bloggers of the different projects of Rising Voices we could read many stories from Liberia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Mongolia, Romania, Colombia, Yemen, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Bolivia, Ukraine, Uruguay, etc. Some Rising Voices bloggers also participated in and contributed for the Blog Action Day 2010 and the One Day On Earth initiatives. We hope to continue hearing from them. The ‘Introduction to Global Citizen Media Guide’ has been translated in Macedonian and Albanian.

We wish the members of the Rising Voices Community and our readers a happy and prosperous 2011.

Written by Rezwan
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In Romania, mental disorder is a taboo, a shame, a curse. The Blogging The Project collective Blog aims to improve the situation by promoting a positive image of people with mental health problems, providing information, and keeping the community connected. In this post (English translation) we learn about the role of a mental health service user in psychiatric community assistance:

Psychiatric community care is becoming more of a reality today, as mental health is no longer an attribute of only institutions but also of communities. A community includes individuals with and without health problems, but people should be aware of their roles. [..]

The user of mental health services should have a role in psychiatric community assistance. He is a member of a community, in which his life is intertwined. Usually a community labels users, it catalogs them, and it puts them on the outskirts of happiness, if not permanently excluding him as a useless object. Community assistance simply returns the user to the community; taking him from the cold and unfriendly walls of the hospital, and bringing together families, friends, neighbors and colleagues. This also introduces to the community to the idea that the user is a man like all men, with desires, hopes, dreams and talents.

The user is an “expert through experience” with a thorough understanding of mental health, which leads to the development of alternative approaches not only for mental health problems but also solutions for therapy, services and policies in general.

The concept of involving a user is closely linked to that of “giving strength,” of “empowerment.” In other words, the user becomes stronger in his personal life, but also in his professional and social lives. The respect, dignity, equality, and possibility to choose are some values that will be brought to life again.

In another post John Head, an American writer tells in an interview how he dealt with untreated mental disorder for 20 years:

What are the three most important advice that I give them to someone faced with depression?

- These are the things I say:

* Do not think you're alone. You're not. There are many people suffering like you and many who matter to your suffering.
* Do not be ashamed. You're not to blame for what you are going.
* Do not be afraid. There is hope. There are many ways to get better and, with help, you will find the path.

Mirela Moldovan

Ever since I was a kid I always felt the need to record the events that impressed me, memories or just my daily activities.

After I grew up I realized how much more we need to share our thoughts and feelings, joys and sorrows.

Mirela shares this wonderful story in her blog “Life as it is”:

I originally wanted to write about desperation, despair and other thoughts sad, but I remembered an impressive and optimistic explanation of a beautiful feeling that I had in March 8. [..] While listening to a song about mothers, about our desire to always have them along, of course I had great emotions and that even put me in great sadness. At that time my baby came to me looking to congratulate me for mothers day. [.. ] it was a very emotional moment. [..] It was an example of a happy coincidence that reveals the light of our lives.

Very beautiful and true: to remember moments of despair about my mother, that in turn are my mother and that my son has the same needs me and loves me as much. Thanks, Serban! (machine translation)

She also writes about the beautiful winter landscape in her locality.

Loy Ovidou. Image Courtesy Betsy Rowley

Olga Oana shares her recent travel photos.

You can watch some of the bloggers talking in this video.

Centrul Scolar, Fundatia Orizonturi, Peace Corps Romania and USAID collaborated to create and implement the Traveling Beyond Barriers project, which is an initiative to increase social integration for mental health service users and students with special needs. From the Blogging The Dream blog (translation):

For a period of 6 months we met 3 times per month; First to plan a 1 day excursion with a particular educational focus (ex. Geography, Culture, Ecology, etc.) The second meeting was the actual excursion, where participants were responsible for recording their experiences and observations through photography, videos, drawings or writing. Lastly we met for follow-up to discuss feedback and participants shared what they created. After the 6 excursions, we created a brochure and pamphlets to demonstrate what the participants learned and disseminate throughout the community. [..]

Traveling Beyond Barriers brochure

The community collaboration was well received; it broke through social barriers and proved that mental health service users and students with special needs are in fact capable and active members of the community.

Written by Rezwan
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Getutza

For me, the blog is an easier mode to communicate with people. My shyness sometimes prevents me from being able to say things with animation. When I post on the blog, it’s only me and the computer. A minimal audience! Yet, a big opportunity to make my thoughts, opinions, ideas, passions, joys and problems known; and allowing me to become closer to people more easily.

After retiring as a lab assistant, Getutza's involvement with the Foundation's activities started with her participation in a literary group, and later when she took part in a course for “Training Volunteers in Mental Health Advocacy.” With these two activities, she became “more involved in the life of the organization, and this aspect improved my life.” This increased confidence led her to accept the invitation to participate in the Blogging the Dream project, which introduced her to the world of blogging and all of its possibilities.

However, Getutza admits that it was not so simple at the beginning.

When I started, I didn’t have the slightest idea how computers worked. Being invited to participate in the project was a challenge for me. I learned basic computer concepts, navigating the internet, using social networks.

She soon became more comfortable around the keyboard and started to post her first articles. She also enjoyed the company of her fellow new bloggers, “I come to blogging club with pleasure, with joy of meeting friends, to “discover” the secrets and benefits of the virtual world.”

Riding horses in Lucina

One of her favorite subjects to date has been her recent travels to surrounding areas in Romania. One of these trips was to a nearby Orthodox monastery [ro], and a trip to Lucina where she was able to visit the stables and ride horses [ro].

She explains why travel is so important to her:

I chose to write about these trips because I like to travel. On excursions, people feel more free, more happy and are less inhibited. I wrote about excursions because I also feel “closer to people” when I travel. Excursions give you the privilege to see well-known places and new places, to discover wonderful corners of our beautiful country. I’m glad to be together with old friends and to make new friends, amongst both the adults and children who came with us on the trip.

One subject that she hopes to write more about is her true “passion” which is baking. In this post [ro], she posts a photo of the traditional baked goods that she made for Easter.

Baked goods during Easter

Even though Getutza describes herself as shy, she is very open about discussing her feelings. The name of her blog translated into English means “Loneliness.” She describes why she decided to title her blog in this manner:

I gave this name because loneliness is the most profound feeling in which I have. I’m convinced that there are many people in the world with this feeling, people who live alone, isolated, without friends, without people nearby to open a door or to say an encouraging word. Through the title I wanted to suggest all of this. I think that whoever understands the meaning of this title and shares the same feeling will connect with me; so we can eliminate loneliness from our lives.

She hopes to continue to blog so that she can find connections with others who may share her experiences, and let them know that they are not alone.

It’s hard to keep inside your concerns, thoughts, fears, joys and even enthusiasm. And when I manage to get this all out, I feel more free.

Special thanks to Gabriela Tanasan for transcribing the interview and to Betsy Rowley for translating the interview

Written by Eddie Avila
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Based in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Romania, the Orizonturi Foundation has been helping people with mental health issues for almost 15 years. Last year, through a Rising Voices micro grant, they launched Blogging the Dream, which consists of a Blogging Club made up of their mental health service users. The goal of the Blogging the Dream project from day one was to develop a collaborative blog, in the hopes that it will help decrease the stigma and discrimination that people with mental health issues face in Romania.

But first the club members went through a hands-on practicum period, where they were trained on how to maintain a personal blog, use digital cameras and upload photos, among other things. They spent a few months practicing their newfound skills. In August, the members’ skills were combined and the collaborative blog was launched, featuring news, information and personal stories related to mental health issues. The first post shares where the inspiration for the project came from:

Over a year ago our former Peace Corps Volunteer, Mara, told us about the micro-grants from Rising Voices, an outreach program of Global Voices, that was collaborating with the Open Society Institute to focus on public health issues involving marginalized populations.

The idea of a program that uses a blog as a form of advocacy for people with mental health problems filled us with enthusiasm, and we immediately started writing the project proposal…We honestly didn’t expect that Orizonturi, a small organization in northeastern Romania, would receive this micro-grant because organizations and people from all over the world were eligible to apply. Thus we were overjoyed and felt a great sense of responsibility to successfully implement this project.

Before the collaborative blog was launched, organization members were posting updates on another Rising Voices blog. The latest post on that blog talks about how even though the launch was a slow process, the goals remained the same from the beginning. It also discusses the type of content they want to post on the group blog:

Any content that will promote the reality that people with mental health problems are complex individuals who also have hobbies, dreams and successful lives will be included. Ideally, mental health service users within Romania and abroad will be able to communicate, build relationships, establish dialog on advocacy issues and other relevant topics within their community. Furthermore, the blog content will promote a positive image of people with mental health problems and provide more comprehensible information about the mental health field. News and information provided through the blog will help the community to become informed, as well as aware of its value, power and influence to make change happen.

Since its launch, the blog has posted various items, such as announcing the winner of the first EU Health Journalism Prize in which Romanian journalist Emilia Chiscop won third place for her article on a young doctor coping with schizophrenia. The blog also features personal reflections from its club members and those in the community. In this post, for instance, Mirela Ungurean discusses how communication and the Internet, while not a replacement for a shoulder to cry on, can greatly benefit those with mental health issues:

When someone has a mental health problem this does not mean his entire universe, life experiences, dreams and hopes stop. It simply means that he will need help to live as he once did, and to utilize all his abilities, as well as his human, social and professional qualities. In order to do this, communication is needed…

…Therefore, I believe the Blogging the Dream project is a great opportunity for people with mental health problems to value themselves and communicate to the world that they too are able, have aspirations, can accept challenges, and need people who trust in them and share their thoughts…

…I have observed that each participant is writing about their own interests, loves and needs on their personal blogs. This is a form of self validation; to openly express your own thoughts knowing that someone can read and share them. If it is possible for participants to communicate with other people in various parts of the country or even the world, they will understand that they are not alone and that everywhere, regardless of continent, country, family or education, that a mental health problem is something that is possible to overcome with the help of those around them and those who care!

One of the bloggers, D.C., uses the group blog to express how he is not insane or a monster, despite how society may try to characterize him:

In my eyes, I am not insane. As long as it is impossible to know a man entirely, I can determine when psychotic delirium occurs if I apply personal logic that justifies my being, in which nobody else can understand. But, because the reality around me extracts different stimuli from my neuronal network (let’s say that I choose to see a particular 100 bits and not the 100 chosen by others, or I process noise that you understand although not as music to which you’ll dance), you have decided that I am insane. Is that bad…

…Big deal, I thought. If I were like others, I would lose myself. But I forgot that if I’m not as good, I am directly responsible for all that is bad in this world. I am automatically a danger to myself and others around me – because if a disease exists someone must be suffering badly, they are a social parasite that sucks money from the government (disability pension) – because you found me unfit for work I must stay in the hospital (”poor carers who struggle for you”) – because I don’t manage alone, I’m guilty, my parents are guilty, I was not a child – as Freud says, I was a polymorphic monster…but nobody knows how you’ve decided that I am these things.

Written by Juhie Bhatia
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Here in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, a small city in northeastern Romania along the banks of the Moldova River, a group of inspiring activists would rather focus on their mental health than mental illness. They advocate for a community-based approach which integrates mental health service users into society, rather than the usual segregation and stigmatization. “Be interested and understanding with your neighbor,” the homepage of their website declares, “do not ignore him, do not fear him, help.”

Awareness of mental health – much less community-based mental health – is only beginning to spread in Romania as the country transitions from its Communist past to its 2007 accession to the European Union.

Members of the Blogging the Dream project with Orizonturi executive director Gabriela Tanasan and Peace Corps volunteer Betsy Rowley.

Every Thursday afternoon, in a small room provided by the municipality, the members of Orizonturi Foundation meet to work on their monthly literary magazine, A Fi, or “To Be.” Over the past year they have also been trained by Ovidiu Marginean – a local psychologist and technophile – to maintain blogs and use social networks in order to share their stories and forge their own online identities. Juhie has previously reported on the project's progress as it evolved from an idealistic idea to a training-the-trainers’ workshop in Bucharest to the weekly bloggers club, and even strategies for sustaining and scaling up the project. Beth Kanter took notes on Gabriela's presentation at a non-profit web 2.0 conference organized by Soros Romania.

The most active participants of the “Blogging the Dream” project have been Ovidiu Loy, Geta, and Olga Oana. Ovidiu Loy – who has courageously spoken at local schools about his battles with depression and alcoholism – published a blog post earlier this year titled “Free!” (Machine translation.)

I am a man who was consumed by alcohol as a youth. I was a passionate alcoholic. I now know what life is without drinking. I consider alcohol a drug. Several years ago I managed to stop and try to restore my life to do what it was before.

What did I do? I got a job and managed to promote our city with an institution: Academy Catavencu! I managed to complete driving school. I learned to use the computer and the Internet. Many times I was able to go to driving school by myself. Leaving alcohol is a pretty big risk! A lot of people stop accepting you as you were before. Soon you change your lifestyle and behavior. Many will not understand you.

I hope that things will change for me and that I will be able to write nice things and show how good and beautiful it is to quit this drug!

Constantin interviews Olga Oana about her participation in the “Blogging the Dream” club.

Last Thursday I was able to join the “Blogging the Dream” weekly meeting. I gave a short presentation about Global Voices and some of the other Rising Voices grantee projects. Then we decided to collectively produce a video. The participants suggested and voted on several possible topics including “how older and younger generations of Romanians see their country” and “a history of the local market.” Eventually we settled on a discussion about the Orizonturi Foundation and what it has meant for each of them. We created a storyboard and sketched a general outline of what they wanted to discuss in the video.

Video kindly sub-titled in English by Cristiana Anca of ARET.

Although the Blogging the Dream project in Romania was one of the first to use new media to promote community mental health, the strategy has since spread far and wide. The New York Times Magazine article notes that there is a “thriving community of anxiety blogs,” including the group blog We Worry. About.com lists many other sites and directories of mental health blogs.

As Ovidiu Loy mentioned to me, blogs can offer individuals with mental health issues a space where they are treated fairly, without the discrimination they face everyday offline. But, he warned, the internet can also become a space for escape which isolates you even more from the community around you. Loy says that for a time he became too involved in the internet and forgot about the world outside. The next step, it seems, is to use the tolerance and acceptance found online as a tool and strategy to confront the stigma and discrimination which is still pervasive offline.

Written by David Sasaki
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The project, which is funded by a Rising Voices micro grant, was launched last summer by the Orizonturi Foundation (The Horizons Foundation in English). The organization, based in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Romania, has been helping people with mental health issues for almost 15 years. The project's Blogging Club is made up of some of the mental health service users involved with the organization.

The current Blogging Club members have already been trained through the project in how to blog, use digital cameras and upload pictures. They also went though a practicum period where they got to practice using their newfound skills. Many project members have started their own blogs. The eventual goal of the Blogging the Dream project is to develop one collaborative blog, in the hopes that it will help decrease the stigma that people with mental health issues face in Romania.

The Blogging Club members took a two-week break from their blogging activities last month for Easter vacation. During this time they prepared for the holiday, which is important to the Orthodox community in Romania, says project leader Gabriela Tanasan. This photo shows “the basket with bread and food that we take to church on Sunday morning to be blessed. Then we eat what is in the basket. It's one of our customs on Easter,” she says.

Tanasan adds that the two-week break isn't the only thing that has slowed the project down a bit, though — there have been other challenges in developing the collaborative blog. She points to two challenges in particular:

1. The unsteadiness/fickleness of people with mental health problems either because of their health problems or because of the wrong influence from their relatives/family. It is still about prejudices, stigma, the shame of being different.

2. The small number of computers — we have four computers. Only one of them is a new one (that one we bought with the Rising Voices grant) and other three old computers don’t allow us to install all the programs we need to blog…that's why each participant has to wait for another one to finish his/her work on the best computer.

The latest Blogging Club meeting

Tanasan is using new strategies to boost the number of Blogging Club members though. The Blogging the Dream project has invited members of the Orizonturi Foundation's literary group to help them promote their art to a wider audience. The organization has also started a new project this month, which Tanasan hopes will attract more people to get involved. Called “Traveling Beyond Barriers,” the program is an initiative to increase the social integration of mental health service users. Each month, the group will plan a one-day excursion with a particular educational focus, such as geography, arts or ecology. The participants will have to record their experiences through pictures, videos, drawings or writing and then post these observations on their blogs.

Despite the challenges that Tanasan and the other Blogging the Dream members are facing, many are praising their great work. For example, Mara, the organization's former Peace Corps volunteer who was involved with their magazine, “A FI – TO BE,”, had this to say about the organization:

My time in Romania gives me hope regarding the state of mental health advocacy in the world. The Horizons Foundation recognizes that the best changes in policy start locally and at the level that matters most: mental health users and their families. The long CV of projects of Horizons testifies to the fact that the Foundation is making a world impact at the local level every day.

Written by Juhie Bhatia
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Through the “Blogging the Dream” project, funded by a Rising Voices micro grant, a blogging club was created last year for mental health service users. The club's members are being trained on how to create and maintain blogs, with the eventual goal of developing one collaborative blog. The Orizonturi Foundation, based in Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Romania, has been helping those with mental health issues for almost 15 years, and hopes that this blogging club will help decrease the stigma that people with mental health issues face in Romania.

The project began with a technical training period, where participants learned how to blog, use digital cameras, and upload pictures. Since January, however, the project has moved into the practicum phase, where participants have been able to review and practice what they've learned so far. During this time, blogging club members are also becoming more familiar with the Internet, and have been able to work on their blogs and get comfortable with blogging on their own.

Blogging the Dream's project blog shares a few excerpts from their members’ blogs, where participants were asked to reflect on their involvement in this project. For example, 13-year-old Andrea says:

I learned about this program [Blogging the Dream] through Mirela, who I want to thank very much. Together with the Orizonturi Foundation, she has taught me how to use the computer. I always come to this course with pleasure and willing to learn something new. I joined the program because I enjoy writing and playing games on the computer but here I learn how to work on the computer. My gains from this program are the friendships with those I study and the lessons I learn from them.

Geta, a 46-year-old blogging club member, also shares her views:

I got involved with this program [Blogging the Dream] to learn new things, and now I’m able to slowly navigate my own way on the computer. Communicating with more people is what participation in this program means to me. I already feel closer to people since starting this program. The theoretical training was interesting and I learned new things. I will use the knowledge gained to create my blog and communicate with more people.

Here are some of the participants’ developing blogs (in Romanian):

And it's not just the blogging club members that are benefiting from the Orizonturi Foundation's access to the Internet. The project blog explains how the organization's literary circle and English club often use the Web for research, and that some mental health service users have set up email accounts and received a crash course on the Internet during social hours. The project blog elaborates:

A number of the blogging participants are also active in these groups and take pride in showing off their blogs to fellow organization members. In turn, spreading curiosity and interest within their immediate social networks. We can only hope this continues to branch throughout our entire community.

Written by Juhie Bhatia
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Based in the city of Câmpulung Moldovenesc, Romania, the Orizonturi Foundation has been helping those with mental health issues since 1995 by providing services ranging from counseling to organizing excursions. The “Blogging the Dream” project, funded through a Rising Voices micro grant, involves creating a blogging club for their mental health service users, where participants will be trained how to create and maintain blogs, use the Internet, and upload videos. Eventually they will create one collaborative blog, which the organization hopes will help dismantle the stigma that people with mental health issues face in Romania, as well as create awareness of their issues.

Tanasan presented the Blogging the Dream project at the Soros Foundation conference in November. She also attended other sessions such as “Using social media tools for successful nonprofit campaigns,” “NGO web 2.0 practical guide,” and “Integrated communication strategies for NGOs.” Tanasan reflects on her experience at the conference and talks about how she can apply her new knowledge to put this Rising Voices project into focus:

My participation in the Soros Foundation conference was a great opportunity to learn and conduct an exchange of experience about using new media tools.

I was enriched with knowledge about creating and maintaining a blog. I came back with new ideas about implementing our project ‘Blogging the Dream.’ The questions we have to ask ourselves in order to make a known, focused and useful blog are: ‘what is the blog's main purpose?,’ ‘why is the audience possibly interested in its purpose?,’ ‘what do people like the most when they go to a web site: to read, to look at pictures/videos, to download pictures/images/information?,’ ‘what strategy should we adopt in order to reach a larger audience so that to achieve our purpose?” and the range of questions can go on.

Tanasan also found that the conference was a great opportunity to spread the word about the Blogging the Dream project to others working in the field, as well as to make people aware of the Orizonturi Foundation and their work. The positive feedback was a great motivator. From the project's blog:

It’s exciting to see others interested in our project efforts, not to mention receiving encouragement and feedback. Furthermore, Gabriela brought back a lot of information on additional blogging tools that we are excited to implement during our Practicum Period.

The technical training part of the Blogging the Dream project has been completed, where participants learned how to blog, use digital cameras, and upload pictures. The participants are now slowly getting their blogs up and running. The next phase of the project is the practicum period. During this time the blogging club members will meet weekly and have to complete projects to show what they've learned so far. They will also use this time to further develop and become comfortable with their blogs. Tanasan says she will apply what she learned during the Soros Foundation conference during this phase of the project:

The participants in the ‘Blogging the Dream’ project will start the practicum period by 15th of January 2009. We will pay attention to all mentioned aspects in creating the individual blogs and then the common blog. The blog must be conceived as a ‘communication ecosystem,’ where the information comes together and from where they leave. The practicum period gives me the chance to put into practice these ideas.

Written by Juhie Bhatia
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Participants of the Blogging the Dream project, Gabriela Tanasan sitting in the center.

In November, Gabriela Tanasan, the Executive Director of the project was invited by the Soros Foundation to their Advocacy Through Blogging conference in Bucharest, Romania. She presented the project there and discussed how blogs can help mental health patients. The event was live blogged by Beth Kanter:

• They want to improve their (service users) quality of life and confidence and lead an independent life.
• Difficult to work with journalists - because they believe nothing is happening – they call (them) “lunatics” – it is a rural community with villages spread across mountains.  It is why they wanted to blog. They wanted to dispel myths about what mental problems really mean.
• The volunteers were high school students. Through the Internet, they learned about the Rising Voices Grant. They submitted an application, assisted by volunteers from the Peace Corps.
• The purpose of the project is to keep mental health patients to share their ideas and experiences.

The scope of “Blogging the Dream” project was introduced to the 70 members of the organization so that they could find 10-15 interested volunteers for the workshops. From the project blog:

“We have had several express interest and requested to be included in the training. One of the newly active members, a woman in 50’s exclaimed, “Oooh, pick me. I want to be first on the list. I don’t want to miss anything.”

A new computer, web camera and digital camera were purchased for the workshops and the much needed Internet connection was initiated which were “a dream” for many. The two month long technical training was split in 8 sessions:

“Some of the topics being covered in these sessions are self disclosure, privacy, copyright issues/laws, how to handle negative comments/feedback, navigating the Internet, as well as other online networks such as YouTube and Facebook, web and digital camera use. For use during the training, we are developing basic manuals that will include the previously stated topics and step by step blog creation. These manuals will also be used after the training course as tools that the new bloggers can refer to for assistance.”

Here is the training outline (in pdf format).

The technical training started on October 16th with 13 participants ranging from 13 to 53 years of age. Six participants were from the mental health community and seven students were from Centrul Scolar, a school for students with special needs, including mental health problems.

The project blog writes about the first session:

“Towards the end of the session, we had everyone get on the computer to play around and explore the unknown.”

Some tried there typing skills as one woman had written, “I feel good in front of the computer”

The challenges were many. The Internet connection was not ready in the first three weeks. The Centrul school was kind enough to let the participants use their facilities for the workshop. On the fourth week the Internet connection was finally set up.

The lack of computer skills of the participants held back the progress of the workshop a bit but the participants have already opened there own email accounts and were comfortable with many technical aspects.

On December 14^th the technical training had officially ended. The club had limited heating facilities which that kept some of the participants from attending in these cold days. However an enthusiastic group of eight had completed the training fully.

After the holidays the participants will start their two month long practical sessions. The progress was evident already:

“Participants are slowly on their way to getting their blogs up and running. They enjoyed learning how to use the digital camera and loading their pictures onto the computer. It truly puts a smile on your face to see the ownership and pride that the participants are taking in their work.” 

So far six participant blogs have been opened. They are:

• Dragoste, Afectiune si Prietenie (love, affection and friendship)
• Guerrilla
• Momente Penibile
• Sensibilitate si Dorinta (Sensitivity & Desire)
• Singuratate (Loneliness)
• Viata, asa cum e ea… (Life is as it is)

Mirela writes in Viata, asa cum e ea…(Life is as it is) blog about one of her Christmas related childhood memories.

Deea writes in Dragoste, Afectiune si Prietenie (love, affection and friendship) blog about a friend who is obsessed with money.

Loy Ovidiu at Guerrilla blog posts some beautiful pictures of Bukovina region.

Some pictures of the project were uploaded in Flickr. The images used in this post are from that gallery.

Written by Rezwan
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Câmpulung Moldovenesc is on the banks of the Moldova River in Suceava County. It is one of the county's main cities, with approximately 20,000 people, and serves as a good base for exploring the nearby Rarau Mountains. This video gives an overview of the city's landscape.

Photo of Câmpulung Moldovenesc By Night by colorlessness on Flickr. Published under a CC 2.0 license.

The Orizonturi Foundation has been working in this city and helping those with mental health issues since 1995. Approximately one percent of those in Romania suffer from some kind of mental health disorder. To help deal with this problem in their county, the organization has been providing services ranging from counseling and art therapy to organizing parties and excursions for those with mental health issues. The men and women they work with participate in the weekly activities such as reading, listening to music, playing games, and birthday parties.

Of the organization's 70 or so members, about 20 will be involved in the Blogging the Dream project. The project's goal is to create a Blogging Club for their mental health services users, who have mental health problems including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. They will be trained on how to maintain a blog, upload videos, and use social networks, allowing them to share their own stories, interests, and experiences.

Gariela Tanasan, the project's leader, expands on the project's aspirations:

Our goal is to enable users to utilize their talents, as well as develop new skills to demonstrate that they are active and valuable assets to their community. Creating this opportunity will help break through stigma barriers, prevent future misunderstandings that lead to discrimination, and rectify the present misrepresentation of mental health in the media, therefore offering them the possibility to become a more powerful voice within social life.

The project will start off with a four-month training period — two months will be spent on technology, and then there will be a two-month practicum period, where users will create blogs and share their new technical skills with others. Once completed, the participants will then take part in the Blogging Club, where they will participate on one collaborative blog. The hope is that once the Blogging Club is up and running, those with mental health issues can help break down the stigma themselves by sharing their stories and creating their own online identities.

Tanasan says that a blog is the perfect medium to do this:

People with mental health problems in Romania have many assigned landmarks, including: violent, a danger for themselves and the others, freaky, abnormal, etc. Stigma and discrimination are at home in Romania; social reinsertion and rehabilitation are major problems we need to overcome, and that is why the blog in itself is to become our instrument in fighting against them. Journalists have no experience in dealing with mental health related news, therefore their articles are especially discriminating and stigmatizing, rather than informative and educational. Their prejudices and mentality shade over their transmitted information.

This is the first time the organization has used citizen media to help fight such prejudices and integrate those with mental health issues into the community, so the next steps in their project are to purchase equipment and get an Internet connection. However, they have used other media to achieve similar goals. The organization also publishes a magazine called „A fi – To be,”. The magazine is completely produced by their mental health services users and is the first of its kind in Romania. The publication not only helps build relationships among those with mental health problems, but also between them and the community.

Tanasan says the main challenge with the magazine has been maintaining its funding. Though a blog is more self-sustainable and a cheaper way to share stories and experiences, it can pose other challenges. For example, she says, mental health services users are not used to working with computers and the Internet, so they may be intimidated by the task. Other challenges can include the possibility of participants losing interest or temporarily stopping blogging because of health concerns. The project plans to overcome these challenges by adding team-building to its training, which will hopefully promote friendships and encourage members to stay involved, even in difficult times.

In the end, the hope is that the Blogging Club will provide an alternative way for mental health services users to reveal themselves. Tanasan says:

Mental health services users need a realistic way of presenting their own experiences and stories. This can only be done by self-presentation, therefore giving them the possibility to come up with their own words, points of view and interpretations. We hope to change the misrepresentation of mental health in the media.

Written by Juhie Bhatia
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