Stories about Blogging the Dream
Rising Voices: 2010 In Review
2010 was an eventful year for Rising Voices and its community. The community bade farewell to the outgoing Director of Outreach, David Sasaki and welcomed the new Director Eduardo Ávila. In this post we look at some of the notable news of the grantees community we featured in the Rising Voices website in 2010.
Blogging The Dream: Breaking The Taboo About Mental Disorder
The metal health service users of the the Orizonturi Foundation’s Blogging The Dream Project in Campulung Moldovenesc, Romania continue to write about their personal life stories, experiences, challenges, interactions within the community, hobbies, interests, hopes, dreams among other things.
Featured Blogger: Getutza
Getutza admits that she is a timid person. However, she has discovered that blogging has helped her overcome this shyness thanks to her participation in the Blogging the Dream project from the Orizonturi Foundation in Campulung Moldovenesc in Romania. Ever since she started her blog Singuratate, she has found an outlet to express her thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
Blogging the Dream: From Dream to Reality
For over a year, the Orizonturi Foundation’s “Blogging the Dream” project has been laying the groundwork for a collaborative blog written by their mental health service users. A few months ago the blog became a reality and has since explored various aspects of mental health in Romania.
Blogging the Dream: Mental Health and Healthy Communities
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."
Blogging the Dream: Strategies and Challenges
The Orizonturi Foundation’s “Blogging the Dream” project has completed its practicum period and continues to develop and expand its Blogging Club, despite facing challenges.
Blogging the Dream: Theory Into Practice
The Orizonturi Foundation’s “Blogging the Dream” project is well into its hands-on practicum phase, and some participant blogs are already up and running.
Blogging the Dream: Spreading the Word
The Orizonturi Foundation's "Blogging the Dream" project got a little boost in November when project leader Gabriela Tanasan was invited by the Soros Foundation to participate in their Advocacy Through Blogging conference in Bucharest, Romania. Here she reflects on the conference.
Blogging The Dream: Dreaming To Blog
The “Blogging the dream project” in Romania created a blogging club for mental health service users with the help of a Rising Voices micro grant. It trains them how to maintain a weblog, upload videos to online sharing sites, and use social networks. With these blogs these people are voicing their opinions and hope to break through stigma barriers, fight discrimination, and create awareness of mental health problems.
Blogging the Dream: Battling Mental Health Stigmas
In the city of Câmpulung Moldovenesc, in North Eastern Romania, the Orizonturi Foundation will be creating a Blogging Club in the upcoming months in hopes of changing their community’s perceptions of those with mental health problems. Their project, “Blogging the Dream,” is one of the six new health-focused citizen media outreach projects that were announced in June by Rising Voices and Open Society Institute’s Health Media Initiative.
