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In October 2020, Outriders released a multimedia comic about the grassroots initiatives that were launched by the residents of some favelas in São Paulo to face the problems caused or exacerbated by the pandemic. The comic is entitled “Favelas vs COVID-19. What the residents living on the periphery can teach us about strategies to combat the pandemic”. It was written by Brazilian journalist Priscila Pacheco, illustrated by comic illustrator Alexandre de Maio and coordinated and produced by a cross-border team. The Solutions Journalism Network supported the project.

Imagine a socialist running for the United States president, who praised Fidel Castro’s literacy program and spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union. You don’t have to get yourself a solid drink, just read some February 2020 newspapers.

In the fall of 2020, the project operating by the name of Europe Village reached its milestone with the publication of The Whispers in the Trees book on two European markets: in the U.K. and Hungary. With four more languages to come (Polish, Slovakian, Czech, and German) it remains in the process of crossing all kinds of borders, as it used to do while being written collaboratively by five European authors, all from different countries and with different writing backgrounds. The project was commercial but supported by the Hungarian town of Szentendre, well-known for its artistic vibe.

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Outride.rs created a set of GIFs on Giphy, which allows users to use them on many other social media platforms if searching for a specific hashtag. All GIFs were hand-drawn and animated, which made them very unique, and they are part of a more significant theme #LoveSpeech – which is a special language created to debate polarising issues. It allows debate, critics but on the foundation of mutual respect. Since the end of October 2019 with the support of Outride.rs’ community, partner media and many influencers the GIFs have amassed over 5 million views.

As coronavirus spread around Europe, before WHO called it a pandemic, Poland started social distancing and then going into lockdown and shutdown. For our team behind Outride.rs, which is covering global issues with local impact – there has never been a moment like this: when our mission statement has been fully understood by the audience. Regularly, we produce interactive stories, release a magazine sent via email to over 30k newsletter subscribers and extensively use technology to create stories.

During the Outriders Network Stage 2019 event last November, I had an opportunity to meet a group of amazing journalists participating in that event and during an anti-burnout workshop we discussed how difficult their job in 2019 was. The workshop was also summarising lessons learned as a coach working in the Outrider’s Media Garage Project.

Being a freelance journalist in today’s world is not an easy task, especially if you do it because you care. I have talked to Irene to understand what keeps her going and how she makes it all work. Her responses are wise, well thought and inspiring. Enjoy!

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Our first official Meetup is now behind us. Another one after our Summit which opened all Outriders Network activities we hit the road. First stop in Taipei was a bit crazy (g0vtech Summit), and then immediately we went to Romania. In between two events  —  Code for All and The Power of Storytelling, we hosted our meeting for journalists.

The second meetup took place in Warsaw and coincided with the News Impact Academy, an effort of both the European Journalism Centre and Google News Initiative. Our primary goal for this meetup was to surface different tactics and stories to build business models based on audience engagement.

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