Еду в Магадан

Before I start a blog devoted especially to Magadan, or even create a website, because this place deserves it, let me write a small introduction to my new stage of life.

Magadan is my home town...or city...I always doubt if I should call it a town or a city, since it is relatively small (100 000 ppl) but at the same time it is a capital of a state.

So, anyway, Magadan is the place where I grew up, finished school in 2003 and since then I visited it twice, the last time was in January 2006.

Now, after almost 6 years of not seeing my beloved city, I am finally going back!!! I am going to Magadan!!

Ok, if you have not seen it on the map yet, you should. Otherwise you will not understand anything. The thing is - Russia is a very big country. And if you want to get to Magadan, the only way for you to do it is by plane, since there is no railway, not even road to get there.

And by plane it would take you 8 hours from Moscow. And the price for the ticket, depending on the season, equals or even exceeds the price for a return ticket to Brazil!

So it took me 6 years to go back...

I swear there are so many amazing things about Magadan that I will share with you later. But now I just want to tell about my love to that place.

Today, when I received confirmation about the booking of the ticket, of course I started crying. I hadn't even had a doubt about that. And then, as I start realizing it little by little, some memories come back to me.

I warn you, I will be very emotional in this post. If you are ok with it, continue reading:) if not, may be you should wait for a more constructive

Anyway, let me explain.

I don't know what magic this city has, but I have never met people from other cities feeling the same way we, people from Magadan, feel about our city.

I was not born there, I came to live in Magadan when I was 7. By the age of 10, I remember, I was totally in love with the city. Every summer my family used to go for a couple of months "to the continent" - that's how people from Magadan call the rest of Russia (ask me why? we are not even an island, but I guess it's due to the isolation the city has from the rest of Russia). And every summer I used to miss Magadan terribly. The flights back home were ones of the happiest moments of my life! Every time we landed in Magadan, my eyes were full of tears...And I remember myself saying: "I just want to come back and cover that land in kisses!" I was missing the land! I missed friends and school, and my exciting life there, for sure. But most of all I was always terribly missing that land!!!

And even now, when almost all of my friends have left the city and nothing is the same anymore, I am overwhelmed by happiness because I am gonna step on that land...If you have ever felt this way, you will understand me. If not, I really wish you to feel it one day.

It is the beauty, it is the magic, it is the incredible energy Magadan has that works like a magnet for people's hearts. You may leave Magadan, but your heart will always be there. Like, without any exaggeration!

Have you ever though of writing a song about your city? People in Magadan do it yearly, if not monthly. Like, sooooo many songs!!!

A couple of years ago I tried searching for songs with the name 'Magadan' in vkontakte.ru (Russian social network). I found around 2500 results. It means that 2500 times people added a song that has Magadan in its title to their playlist (2-3 years ago). Then I decided to check the same for our capital, Moscow. I got about 5000 results.... Moscow has more than 10 mln people, Magadan has 100 thousands... and a much lower percentage of them use Internet than people in Moscow. And still we got half of Moscow results...and this, not including the songs about Magadan which don't have the word Magadan as a title (and there are many).

Let me finish my post here...later I will give some other interesting facts about Magadan.

You can enjoy some pictures below:

Being Half Blind

Sincerely speaking, before applying for internship in Inclusive Planet I did not know what the word Visually Impaired means. I knew there were blind and sighted. But who can be called a visually impaired?

Today I read an article written by one of our Planeteers (that's how we call Inclusive Planet members) - Vishal Jain, a very smart and talented young guy. He is visually impaired himself and he is currently doing his MBA in one of the best Indian universities. In the article he wrote 3 categories of visual impairment:

• Total blindness - A person who can’t see anything or has negligible eye site. May or may not be independent in mobility.
• Partial blindness – can sense large objects, can’t read and write the printed material, board or the screen. The eye site is mostly used for mobility
• Low vision – can read and write large font text, identify people and objects in well lit area

Many visually impaired people I met don't look like they have any vision problem. Because of this they very often have to face awkward situations which can sometimes be very bad. People react aggressively on their behavior because they don't know that the person can not see...

I decided to dedicate one of my Inclusive Stories to this topic: How does it feel to be "half blind"?

Curous to know more? Read the whole article of Vishal to know how visually impaired people work and study and what's the best way to help them.

Visit inclusiveplanet.com/stories to listen to more amazing stories!

And feel free to join www.inclusiveplanet.com and discover a completely new Planet!:)

My Social Business Experience in India

I was very lucky to be selected to participate in Artemisia Social Business program. I do think it is one of the most amazing internships one can have in AIESEC, if not the best one. Because social business is the field where there is so much innovation! It is all about innovation and passion. Because the whole concept of a social business is already an innovation, right? And you can learn so much in it! Believe me!

I am working with a startup called Inclusive Planet, which is basically a social network for the blind. Before I applied for this internship I knew only one person with low vision in my life. He is a wonderful musician living in Magadan. And I actually never thought that blind or visually impaired people can use computers...So the first learning point for me was: thanks to technology blind people can use computers, cellphones, internet just like sighted people. The difference is that they use a program called Screen reader which reads out whatever is written to them. But because our world is so visual and usually the websites are not only text, they contain a lot of pictures and animations; a lot of information is just inaccessible to the visually challenged people.

So the founders of Inclusive Planet decided to create a website specially designed for the blind, totally accessible. And www.inclusiveplanet.comturned to be a website where blind people can share their files (books, articles, etc.in an accessible format), connect to each other to entertain or to help each other face similar challenges. It's something like a Facebook for the blind, except that it is much more than just a social network. It's a completely new thing which has never existed before and which can become a huge success! Imagine what a great feeling it is to work with an organization like this!

So my job here has been to meet visually challenged people who are employed or who are studying to be employed and interview them. After that I make short videos of them telling their stories and sharing with others and I upload these stories on Inclusive Stories Channel at www.inclusiveplanet.com and on YouTube.

The stories I collected are simply amazing! The people I met are so strong and inspiring! After meeting them I broke a lot of stereotypes about the blind in my head. They are so cheerful and independent! It is amazing the way they managed to accept their disability and take it as a challenge, look at it very positively. I learn so much from them!

Another important learning point I got here is that you have to see opportunities in every problem. Just like Inclusive Planet saw an opportunity in the world of the visually challenged people, people can do so much to make lives of both sighted and visually impaired people better. And I am not saying that people have to open a charity or start teaching blind people to read, sing, or whatever. The good thing is that every person can contribute to it without even making a lot of effort. It is just about being open, understand each other's needs and strong points and learn to work and live together. Visually challenged people are so good in some things that the sighted people are bad in and the other way round. I think we should be very inclusive in this point, stop dramatizing the problem or sympathizing the people with challenges and just see the positive side of everything.

Below you can find the first stories I made: