Dear Wikimedians,
As part of its ongoing program to support Wikimedians in India during the COVID-19 pandemic, CIS-A2K will provide support with access to counselling services to community members, in order to address mental health concerns resulting from the stress and anxiety of coping with the pandemic The A2K team has collaborated with the Institute of Psychological Health <https://www.healthymind.org/> to provide the counselling support. A2K would endeavour to provide support under this component of the programme as follows :
1) *Awareness/Orientation Session on Mental Health and the Pandemic. This session will be organised online and will be open to all Wikimedians in India looking to understand more about mental health concerns that are prevalent at the present time, due to pandemic-related anxiety, stress and trauma. The details of the session will be announced here shortly, with a link to a separate event page.
2) *Individual Counselling Sessions Interested Wikimedians who wish to apply for this support may fill out this application form. https://forms.gle/WXLj2cR4jie6r1pc6
For more details of this programme, please visit this meta page -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India/COVI…
With best wishes,
Jayanta Nath
On behalf of A2K team,
Centre for Internet & Society - Access to Knowledge Programme
Dear Wikimedians,
As part of its ongoing program to support Wikimedians in India during the COVID 19 pandemic, CIS-A2K has organised 'Awareness/orientation session on Mental health and pandemic.
This online session is open to all Wikimedians in India to understand more about mental health concerns that are prevalent at the present time, due to pandemic-related anxiety, stress and trauma. This interactive session would ideally aim to:
create awareness and sensitisation about mental health in general
deliberate on the variety of issues faced by people at this particular time
demystify/address any misgivings/stigma related to mental health issues and counselling/therapy/treatment
and encourage people to avail counselling services in case they feel the need for the same.
The details of the session are as follows -
Date: Saturday, 12 June 2021
Time: 4 to 6 pm (IST)
Expert: Dr. Anand Nadkarni, Psychiatrist and founder of IPH
- More about Dr. Anand Nadkarni - http://iphpune.org/wp/about-me/
- LinkedIn profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anand-nadkarni-41a290129/?originalSubdomain=in
- Videos on Avahan channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/AVAHANIPH/videos
Registration link - https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUkf-GgrzsiHNN88GTyKAwpSdP82FAI6lCi
We kindly request you to book your time slot for this important session, register on the above link and promote the event in your communities as well.
Stay safe, with best wishes,
Jayanta Nath
Hello all,
We hope that you are doing well. We wanted to inform you that A2K has started an internet support program for the Wikimedians in India from 1 June 2021. This will continue till 31 August 2021. It is a part of Project Tiger, this time we have begun with the internet support, writing contest and other things that will follow afterwards.
You can visit the event page ink: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Internet_support_for_Wikimedians_in_India
You may also see the FAQ section: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Internet_support_for_Wikimedians_in_India#F…
For reviewing the applications, there is a committee that will make decisions for the applications. After the committee's response, support will be provided. For more information please visit the event page (linked above). Before applying, please read the criteria and the application procedure. Please go through the page and apply if you find you are eligible for applying. Please also share this information with others as well.
Stay safe, stay connected,
Thanks & Regards,
Jayanta
Dear Wikimedians,
As part of its ongoing program to support Wikimedians in India during the
COVID-19 pandemic, CIS-A2K will provide support with access to counselling
services to community members, in order to address mental health concerns
resulting from the stress and anxiety of coping with the pandemic The A2K
team has collaborated with the Institute of Psychological Health
<https://www.healthymind.org/> to provide the counselling support.
A2K would endeavour to provide support under this component of the
programme as follows :
1) Awareness/Orientation Session on Mental Health and the Pandemic
This session will be organised online and will be open to all Wikimedians
in India looking to understand more about mental health concerns that are
prevalent at the present time, due to pandemic-related anxiety, stress and
trauma. The details of the session will be announced here shortly, with a
link to a separate event page.
2) *Individual *Counselling Sessions
Interested Wikimedians who wish to apply for this support may fill out
this application
form. <https://forms.gle/WXLj2cR4jie6r1pc6>
For more details of this programme, please visit this meta page -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India/COVI…
With best wishes,
Jayanta
On behalf of A2K team,
Centre for Internet & Society - Access to Knowledge Programme
Hello,
The second session of Stay Safe Stay connected, a lightweight interaction
zone for the Wikimedians in India, will take place on Saturday 5 June 2021
at 5 pm to 6:30 pm IST (11:30 am to 1:00 pm UTC). Please see the event page
here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stay_safe,_stay_connected#Session_II
This will be a Wikisource community fraternity meeting where Wikisource
editors can meet and talk to each other. We may speak about the ongoing and
upcoming Wikisource projects, share interesting news and updates around
Wikisource.
Wikisource editors from all around India are expected to be attending the
call. User:VIGNERON, French Wikisource editor, and User:Samwilson, from
English Wikisource, will be attending. If you are a Wikisource editor or
enthusiast, please join this Wikisource community call.
Please fill this short form, if you are interested to attend:
https://forms.gle/e85k84tX4oroKkjx7
For any query, please email wmwm(a)cis-india.org
Stay safe, stay connected.
Regards,
Jayanta
Note:
1) The session will be hosted on Zoom and this session will be recorded.
2) Please feel free to speak in your native language during the call.
That's cool. We'll try to translate.
3) In the open session or during the discussion, you may speak about
your/your community's Wikisource work. If you want to show any page/project
keep the link handy.
Hello,
Hope this email finds you safe in this difficult time. Many people and
Wikimedians have been affected or have suffered a loss. In an effort to
ensure community solidarity where Wikimedians can meet and talk to each
other, we are starting a lightweight interaction zone for the Wikimedians
in India. This interaction zone is named "Stay Safe Stay Connected".
Please see the event page here:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Stay_safe,_stay_connected
The first talk will be on Saturday, 22 May 2021, 7 pm to 8 pm IST (1:30 pm
to 2:30 pm UTC). Asaf Bartov will be the guest of the session. Asaf is a
familiar name and he has been a mentor to many Wikimedians in India. This
will be a lightweight discussion on general Wiki-topic (note the exact
agenda will be updated on the event page before the event)
We invite you to join the first talk. The session will be hosted on Zoom.
Please fill this short form, if you are interested to attend the first
interactive talk on 22 May 2021
https://forms.gle/e85k84tX4oroKkjx7
Please follow the event page for updates. Stay safe, stay connected!
Regards,
Jayanta
Hello Wikimedians,
We are all passing through a very difficult time as the second wave of
COVID-19 has hit hard throughout the country. It is a bitter and hard truth
that many of us have lost our loved ones, close friends, relatives,
neighbours already. Some of us have faced economic difficulties due to loss
of jobs, losses in businesses, huge hospitalization expenses etc.
In the midst of this crisis, a support program has been initiated to
provide some reliefs to our Wikimedia volunteers residing in India. The
program will support the following -
1. Reimbursement of vaccination costs
2. Sending of COVID-19 protection kits
3. Counseling by experts
The support will be provided by CIS-A2K. The vaccination expenses will be
reimbursed as early as April 30, 2021. The COVID-19 protection kits will
get couriered within a week or more, depending on various logistical
factors. The team will try to support the more vulnerable section of the
community first.
Volunteers are requested to fill up this Google Form to request support -
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYcjEeuT7vUxP3NJg7KfIiZaude9IXLyC…
If you do not need this kind of support but you know some volunteers from
your community who are in dire need, you can nominate them too through this
form or mail the support team directly. Affiliate contacts and community
leaders are also kindly requested to help identify the volunteers who need
the support the most.
You can find more details about the support program here -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India
Please read the FAQ subpage too -
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_support_for_Wikimedians/India/FAQ
The support team would also like to emphasise that,
a) there might be some delay in sending support as there are lockdowns in
different parts of the country and there is scarcity or non-availability of
different items in the market,
b) there might be some unintentional or unexpected errors from the team, as
this is the first time, this kind of support is being set up for Indian
Wikimedia volunteers and the team does not have prior experience to deal
with this kind of global health situation before.
c) the team members are also facing the same critical situation like
everyone else; there are possibilities that they can become sick sooner or
later, which might hamper the support to some extent.
That's why the team would like to request you to understand the limitations
and assume good faith that any failure to serve sometimes would be due to
situations beyond control.
If you want to contact us directly for any questions, concerns,
suggestions, help etc. you can mail us directly at wmwm(a)cis-india.org .
Let's join hands to overcome this situation.
Regards,
Jayanta
On behalf of the COVID-19 support team
Dear Marathi Wikimedians,
The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is organizing a call for
feedback about community selection processes
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…>[1]
between February 1 and March 14. While the Wikimedia Foundation and the
movement have grown about five times in the past ten years, the Board’s
structure and processes have remained basically the same. As the Board is
designed today, we have a problem of capacity, performance, and lack of
representation of the movement’s diversity. Direct elections tend to favor
candidates from the leading language communities, regardless of how
relevant their skills and experience might be in serving as a Board member,
or contributing to the ability of the Board to perform its specific
responsibilities. It is also a fact that the current processes have favored
volunteers from North America and Western Europe. As a matter of fact,
there had only been one member who served on the Board, from South Asia, in
more than fifteen years of history.
In the upcoming months, we need to renew three community seats and appoint
three more community members in the new seats. This call for feedback is to
see what processes can we all collaboratively design to promote and choose
candidates that represent our movement and are prepared with the
experience, skills, and insight to perform as trustees? In this regard, it
would be good to have a community discussion to discuss the proposed ideas
and share our thoughts, give feedback and contribute to the process. To
discuss this, you are invited to a community meeting that is being
organized on March 12 from 8 pm to 10 pm, and the meeting link to join is
https://meet.google.com/umc-attq-kdt. You can add this meeting to your
Google Calendar by clicking here
<https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=MDNqcjRwaWxtZThnMXB…>[2].
Please ping me if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Krishna Chaitanya
[1]
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_of_Trustees/Call…
[2]
https://calendar.google.com/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=MDNqcjRwaWxtZThnMXB…