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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.