Events

For the first time in Romania, two community radio station licenses have been issued in the framework of the  European project Grassroot Wavelengths. The new high-tech FM stations will broadcast in, engage with, and serve two remote villages of Romania.

Last evening we met with dear friends to celebrate eight years of involvement in the Roma Health Scholarship Program story in Romania. We thank all those who were with us, we thank all fellows of the program for their wonderful development, and we thank the artists Anelise Sălan and Petruţ Călinescu for documenting medical activity of young Roma doctors.

Carmen, Cristian, Adina, Alina, Cătălin, Daniel, Raluca, Sorin, Andrei, and Corina chose to devote their lives learning how to cure others. They are ten of many other Roma youth who study medicine and achieve academic recognition in Roma Health Scholarship Program.

Five young Roma, fellows of Roma Health Scholarship Program, were happy to share their life stories. Some of them are doctors and some of them will become doctors soon. And their stories are not unique.

Sorin is a medicine student at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy ”Grigore T. Popa”, in Iași. He was born and raised in Băciociu, a small village in Bacău, located near the Siret river. More than a third of the people in the village are Roma ethnics, so is Sorin, who comes from a traditional Roma family, native speakers of the Romani language.

Robert is doing his internship in general medicine. He studied and graduated at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy, in Bucharest. His mother is a Roma ethnic, and his father is Romanian and he works as a florist. His parents didn’t think of him becoming a doctor, but they determined him to learn a lor so Robert figured it out by himself. He always wished for more, not because he wasn’t pleased with what he had at home, but because he believed that it was the right thing to do. Of course his parents supported him and they are very proud of him.

Carmen graduated the Dental Medicine School at “Grigore T. Popa” University in Iași. Her parents wanted her to be a musician, as her father, so all the way until college she was studying piano and was preparing for her admission at the Conservatory. But Carmen had a different plan. She dreamt to become a dentist since she was a child.

Alina Călin is the first Roma intern in the surgery clinic of the Emergency Hospital in Iași. Her colleagues and teachers describe her as an extremely passionate and responsible intern. Alina comes from a large family, with four brothers, a home mother and a father that works as a long way driver. The decision of becoming a doctor also came from a family event, when one of her brothers had a car accident and needed urgent medical care and surgery. That is how Alina decided to be a doctor.

Daniel comes from Călărași, and right now he’s doing his internship on paediatric surgery at the “Marie Curie” Children Emergency Hospital, in Bucharest. He is a roma ethnic and he assumes that with dignity; he even regrets that he didn’t learn the Romani language back when he had time for that. He never has trouble communicating with his patients. Daniel works with children, so communication is an important aspect of his job.

Two future Roma doctors, scholars of Roma Health Scholarship Program, Gabriela Chirea and Sorin Lăcătuș, are the first to present first aid video tutorials in Romani language (subtitled in Romanian). They explain important procedures that everyone can do to save the life of a family member or a person unknown.

Someone’s been electrocuted and you want to save that person. How do you do that?

You want to save someone that suffered bone fractures. How do you do that?

You want to save a hurt person that is losing blood. How do you do that?

You find a person that fainted and you want to save him/her. How do you do that?

28 Romanian and International human rights organizations criticize the initiative to amend the definition of family in the Romanian Constitution

Opening: Thursday, 07/07, 7pm, MNAC
In the presence of Minister of Culture, Corina Şuteu, MNAC Director , Calin Dan and ActiveWatch President, Mircea Toma

ActiveWatch is one of the 46 institutions that joined the Committee “Coalition against the poverty”. The structure was built in order to monitor the implementation of the Strategy against the poverty and to assist the local authorities in the process of elaboration and implementation of the programs aiming at reducing the poverty in Romania. ActiveWatch considers its implication in the Coalition as being extremely important bearing in mind that one of the most acute problems in Romania is the extreme poverty.

The iPro Consortium has deveoped 14 modules, that integrate in the Digital Media and Arts Studies Model Curricula proposed by the partners.

The Ipro Project is coming to an end. The Implementation guidelines are aimed at formulating and giving of modify suggestions, solutions, advices, guidelines, eventually examples for implementing and using of the Model curricula in the context of each partner country by institution outside of the partnership - other universities, training centers, companies and etc.

More than 50 experts from eight countries were approached and consulted in national focus groups regarding the educational modules adressed to professionals in digital media and arts, developed by The iProfessional (iPRO) Erasmus Multicultural Project.

The iPro consortium members are proposing a Curriculum Prototype with the aim to establish and define a set of disciplines (courses) with theoretical and with practical aspects, that will assist the HEI’s and the vocational institutions in their efforts of matching the curriculum of their students in (digital) Media and Arts Studies with the professional requirements expressed by the (international) community of media and arts businesses. Information about the contents of the Curriculum Prototype can be found here: Curriculum Prototype.

The iProfessional Competence Framework (iPCF) is a reference framework of competences required by professionals in the field of digital multimedia and arts. The iPCF defines a set of knowledge and skills needed to achieve measurable outputs according to the new professional standards on the global market.

The iPRO Consortium conducted an extensive survey in 8 European countries (Romania, Bulgaria, Lituania, Irland, Belgium, Poland, Italy and Croatia) in order to identify the gaps between the world of the interactive media and arts design business and the higher and further education institutions for Media and Arts Design Studies in the countries above, as well as solutions for a closer collaboration.

ActiveWatch project - "Interactive Freedom of Speech Map" aims to create and strengthen a communication platform for a community of practice comprised citizens, students, journalists and civic activists.

The project is aimed at setting up a pilot collaboration between HEIs and VET providers in 8 European countries in order to investigate the potential for a closer collaboration between the world of the interactive media and arts design business and the higher and further education institutions for Media and Arts Design Studies.

We would like to invite primary and secondary school teachers to register for the Open Educational Resources: Teacher Training workshop, organized by ActiveWatch on Friday, February 14th 2014, at the Compendiu Center for Professional Training, within the “Nicolae Kretzulescu” Higher Commercial School in Bucharest. The event is organized in partnership with the Association for New Technology and Internet Services (APTI).

During the Media & Learning Conference in Brussels ActiveWatch and its partners in the MEDEAnet project launched the second research report Charting Media and Learning in Europe-2012.

The MEDEAnet webinar “Researching Media Literacy in Europe” was held on November the 28th and gathered 27 participants from 11 countries. Video recording and speakers' presentations are now available online. 

Online magazine "Media Literacy in Europe" includes the MediaSIS training course among 12 other media education good practices this year - 12 Good Practices That Will Inspire You. Evens Foundations in Antwerp and JFF - Institute for Media Education and Media Research in Munich are the creators of the online platform.

The 7th MEDEAnet webinar was held on September 5th 2013 and tackled the topic of "Big Data" and "Learning Analytics". The recording is now available online. 

Several months ago JFF - Institute for Media Education and Media Research in Munich and Evens Foundation in Antwerp asked us to provide a description of several media education projects that ActiveWatch developed during the last years and could fit into a Publication of good practice projects in the field of media literacy, in plan to be published. We publish the text on our website as well, as the document brings together and gives a nice overall image of the different media education activities we do here at ActiveWatch. Enjoy!

ActiveWatch organizes the second MEDEAnet workshop “Use of Documentary Film in the Classroom” on the 5th of October 2013 in Bucharest. The workshop is dedicated to pre-universitary educators teaching civic education and social and humanistic studies as well as history and Competence into mass media.

We proudly announce you that today ActiveWatch has become an IFEX member. The IFEX network of organisations is connected by a shared commitment to defend and promote freedom of expression as a fundamental human right. IFEX defends and promotes everyone’s right to free expression: IFEX advocates for the free expression rights of all, including media workers, citizen journalists, activists, artists, scholars. 

ActiveWatch, also a member of the Reporters without Borders since 2004, is a human rights organization advocating for free communication in the public interest. 

Check out our new educational material on the use of documentary film in the classroom developed during one of the MEDEAnet workshops this year.

Read here the english version of the FreeEx Report - Press Freedom in Romania 2012:

pdf

doc

Bucharest, 21 March 2013

Policy Center for Roma and Minorities together with ActiveWatch Romania and Agentia Împreună raise serious concern on the declarations of the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta during a 23 minutes interview on HARDtalk show on BBC World News on 19 March 2013. During the interview, Mr. Ponta’s statements reflected and further enforced the societal racist and discriminatory position of the majority population in Romania towards Roma ethnics. We demand a public statement that clarifies the official position of the Romanian government towards the Roma minority in Romania, hence in the European Union.

In an effort to restore Romania’s image during an interview taken by Mrs. Zeinab Badawi, Mr. Ponta alienates Roma from the rest of the Romanian citizens, blames Roma for the negative perception of Romania abroad by labeling them as criminals and denies the discrimination of Roma by the majority population in Romania despite studies issued by public institutions such as the National Council for Combatting Discrimination that indicate otherwise . Mr. Ponta describes “benefit tourism” in UK and Germany as “a specific situation of the Roma community” and indirectly designates Roma community as a scape goat for the migration issues of Romanian citizens in western countries. Though expressing several times during the interview full commitment to respond to the needs of the Roma community in Romania, Mr. Ponta shows a poor understanding of the Roma, lacks proper documentation and enforces through ambiguities many of the prejudices of the majority population towards Roma. 

We announce the fifth MEDEAnet webinar “Videos for teaching” on Thursday, 21 March 2013, 4pm CET (5pm Romania) for teachers, educators and trainers interested in developing their own educational media.

ActiveWatch and its partners invite you Saturday, February 16th, at 11:00h to a treasure hunt in Colentina Neighbourhood. The competition is for the residents in this neighbourhood, irrespective of age, who want to rediscover Colentina through untold stories and forgotten places. The registered teams will receive clues in order to get to the most important landmarks of medieval, modern, interwar, communist and postcommunist Colentina. At the end, the explorers who get the most points will receive a prize.

On February 7th, a pan-European coalition of citizens and nearly one hundred media groups, professional bodies, Independent Journalists and Civil Society Organisations from across the continent will launch the online collection of signatures for the first European Citizens’ Initiative targeting media freedom and pluralism. The European Citizens’ Initiative is a new tool of participatory democracy allowing citizens to collect at least one million signatures online or offline to present a legislative proposal directly to the European Commission, thereby changing EU law.

 laBOMBA la MODERN
 social fashion for Rahova-Uranus

Club MODERN, Mihai Eminescu Street No. 127

The Community Center for Creative Education and Active Art laBomba
proudly invites to
"The Evicted Women's Parade", a fashion show done by the women of the Rahova-Uranus community with the aim of raising funds for the education of their children.

ActiveWatch organizes the MedeaNET workshop “Use of Documentary Film in the Classroom” on the 23rd of February 2013 in Bucharest. The workshop is dedicated to pre-universitary educators teaching civic education and social and humanistic studies as well as history and Competence into mass media.

Have fun while learning about the most important IPR and copyright rules that may apply to you when developing your own media content for educational purposes: take part in the next MEDEAnet webinar "Copyright Considerations for Educational Media Producers" on 13 December 2012, 4pm CET. This webinar will take the form of a live quiz programme! No great prizes to win! Free participation but prior registration required.

ActiveWatch and Motivation Romania, with Vodafone Foundation Romania and Dedeman, held the third edition of People with Disabilities Awards "Freedom - Make It Accessible!" in Studio 3 of The Romanian Public Television, on Tuesday, November 27, 2012.

The event, produced in collaboration with TVR and moderate by Catalin Stefanescu, presented thewinners of the race to transform Romania into a society open to all members, with all the skills they have.

Personal Development Program Roma Professionals in the Medical Field launches today the fifth session of applications for the Tutoring and Scholarships component. The component targets Roma high school students and high school graduates who wish to apply next year for the admission exam in an medical education institution.

Proposals to promote diversity in the training of journalists in sport news.

Respect for diversity is one of the basic principles of covering a story. All the more as there are resources and professional training methods for journalists to help them become aware of this issue, an opinion expressed by reporters, editors in sport, journalism and media education trainers who attended the MARS workshop (Media Against Racism in Sport) organised in Cluj Napoca at the end of May.

The online seminar "A Case for Media Education in the Classroom" was held on Thursday, October 18th, 2012. Nicoleta Fotiade, coordinator of the Media Education program, was one of the speakers.

"I trusted this project from the begining and it turned out that I counted correctly. Here we already have several generations of young Roma professionals who can be an example to any young Romanian. As I have said on other occasions, this project will always have my support. "
Raed Arafat, for the launching conference of Roma Professionals in the Medical Field Programme, 2012-2013 Edition

Last week, at the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj, ActiveWatch organised the "Media, Diversity and Racism in Sport" workshop. For three days, 30 trainers in journalism and Media education, journalists and students at Journalism have tried to understand the way in which sports journalism emphasizes diversity or promotes a rasist discourse and to come up with a set of training activities for students at Journalism who are interested in sports journalism.

Young Roma frequently encounter refusals based on prejudice when they participate to job interviews.
An efficient anti-discrimination campaign action is making majority people feel discriminated. To create such a situation, a false advertising job fair was staged. In the interviews, participants were assessed in terms of alleged defects which they could not control: place of origin, sign, height etc. 

What does it mean: to discriminate? What does it mean to put labels on people whom you do not know?
Three young Roma who are preparing for medicine, had worn the discrimination labels on their back and had walked for two days through the most crowded areas of Bucharest.

Roma children dreams are similar to any child dreams. They want to become pilots, police officers, actors, doctors, and the list goes on.

Let's believe in their real potential and no longer watch them with distrust.

The pilot course for training teachers to attain Media and digital competences - MediaSIS - is launched on Saturday, April 7th, 2012, at the Activewatch headquarters.

The anti discrimination campaign bluntly exposes the tragic effects of distrust in the Roma children development capacity.

ActiveWatch in partnership with the Association for Roma Journalists organise the free course in Journalism and Media Culture for teenagers age 15-18 from the Colentina neighbourhood.

In the 2010-2011 education year, more than 300 pupils from 23 schools in Romania attended the OnAir course. The educational package put at the disposal of teachers online on the ActiveWatch site was at the basis of lessons. At the moment, we are preparing a document to present the project's impact, based on the comments and the experiences of pupils and teachers involved in the course. We have received feedback from half of them until now. Below, you can read a selection of opinions gathered from the teacher's journals.

On June 3rd, we met with the pupils who took part in SHARP, the Media education workshop, held at the beginning of April in School no. 1 from Slatina. On this occasion, the pupils (age 11-14) watched the videos they created with the help of the ActiveWatch team and we also discussed about the conclusions of this 4 days workshop.

Between the 1st and 4th of April 2012, ActiveWatch, in partnership with the ELMI Foundation and School No. 1 from Slatina (Olt County) organised a Media education workshop intended for pupils age 11-14. Thus, for four days, 14 pupils from Slatina have learned to interpret Media messages and to produce small audiovisual projects.

ActiveWatch publishes a new educational product aimed at secondary school pupils to better understand news production and to learn how to question and verify credibility of information in the media.

We'd like to announce the launch of the project "SHARP - A Platform for Sharing and Re/Presenting" in Romania

For 8 weeks, three teachers from Aiud, Baia-Mare and Petrosani are testing the ONAIR educational package with their pupils during lessons of Competences in Mass Media, English Language and Literature and Sociology. Pupils will become acquainted with the way in which news are produced, with online information research, they will analyse the "sensationalized" approach to news and the stereotyped representation of minority groups and they will also produce their own news bulletins.

Starting today a new Resource Database is available on the ONAIR website. The database contains Good practices in the Use of Media in Education as gathered by the ONAir partners in six European countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Romania). 50 case studies were gathered in Romania and describe various projects developed in the classroom with the use of media, especially with the use of Internet.

The aim of this report is to analyze how Romanian students and teachers use media in their free time and at school. It also aims at understading teachers and students' attitude and perception about the media. 

ActiveWatch is the new Romanian partner in the ONAir media education project. The project intends to involve secondary schools in a common effort in order to make New Media become not a threat but a tool for the development of students literacy skills and for the building of their critical and aware approach to the understanding of reality through New Media.