First, a bit about myself: My name is Mariem Sene, I am Finnish-Senegalese by nationality and recently based in Paris. I have a work background in non-profit organizations focused on women’s and children’s rights (e.g. Plan Finland, Plan International, Prospera International Network of Women’s Funds), where I provided technical and strategic support to the developing of organizational policies and procedures, as well project implementation. As the new PARVIS Project Coordinator, I am responsible for the operational, administrative and financial implementation of the PARVIS project and I will also work in close collaboration with EBU members to ensure that awareness-raising tools developed address their communication needs and effectively support their future campaigns.
Now, I will take advantage of this opportunity to tell you more about the project itself. This spring has debuted a lot of new activities in EBU, one of them being PARVIS, which is an exciting opportunity for national visual impairment organisations to raise awareness on blind and partially-sighted persons’ rights with the use of audiovisual material. The project involves altogether 9 EBU member organisations: Slovakia, Germany, Montenegro, France, Lithuania, Portugal, and Spain, in addition to Netherlands and Sweden, which are partners within the PARVIS consortium.
PARVIS has already hit the ground running and the first mini-video on the right to accessible health will launch on the PARVIS YouTube Channel on May 10th, and additional translated versions in 9 national languages will be available on May 26th. The launch will be accompanied by an e-workshop on May 31st, focused on the right to accessible health. The e-workshop is part of a series of many right-based e-workshops, open to all EBU members. More info to come shortly on this!
In May, PARVIS activities will focus on the developing of the second mini-video on the right to access to information, airing at the end of June 2021; a Twitter campaign launching in September this year focusing on the right to culture and more specifically audio-description; ongoing preparations of EU guidelines on audio-description available in September 2022; and the production of a 20-minute real-life video featuring rights-related obstacles, which will be officially aired on 9 May 2022 on the occasion of Europe Day.
I look forward to collaborating with you and meeting many of you in person in the first e-workshop on May 31st.
PARVIS Project Coordinator