duminică, 19 august 2012

Day four - Connecting the Visions

Today we went deeper into the issues of mental health and what services can be provided by NGOs to people with mental problems. Our day started with a visit at Estuar – the most important non-governmental structure that addresses the needs of people with mental health issues in Romania. We took a brief tour of the centre, found out about the activities that take place in Estuar, who are the beneficiaries, what are the good aspects and what are the short-comings… and also spoke to Silviu – the first beneficiary that Estuar had in Cluj-Napoca. It’s basically impossible not to like Silviu and not to laugh and cheer around him – he’s probably the best example we’ve met lately of how much potential and how many abilities and open-mindedness a person with mental issues can have!


The day continued with a chance to learn how the organizations where we each came from work with people with mental health disability. Lecsa and Bogdan organized a talk show and we were all invited to share our vision and our good practices with the other participants in the public. I think it was extremely useful for each of us to find out new ways of addressing mental health issues, different aspects of the same problems, how different organisations from different cultures deal with these needs, but also what already works in some countries or NGOs and could be implemented in others as well. 

In the night, most people chose to have some more old-fashion fun, and play games, dance and drink great Romanian whine, until late into the night. Of course there were some casualties: some of us were too tired from the excitement of the last three days to join the party anymore – so they went to sleep… and some of us that really partied with passion (“Youth in Passion” J - inside joke) were a little bit on the zombie side the next morning J All in all, it was another fun-filled and also revealing day for all.

(Articol scris de Manuela Nedelcu)

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