Fellowship in the land of Santa Claus!
Job Shadowing in Turku, Finland that involved participants from Armenia, Moldova and Georgia started on May 23 and lasted till May 31. During the 7 working days participants visited different places, like local organizations working with minorities, refugees, people with disabilities, hosted guests from the field of study and got a chance to learn about cultures and traditions of different countries. On the first day participants had a meeting at SONDIP office where there was a presentation about organization and participants discussed about their expectations. Humak University of Applied Sciences presented their educational programme.
During the second day participants took part in cultural festival where they had a chance to meet representatives from various cultures, like Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ukraine, Kurds, Nigeria, Estonia, Uzbekistan, Spain, Afghanistan and Russian speaking community and taste their traditional food, watch the dances and listen to their cultural music.
On the next days participants spent their time on discovering the city heritage, visiting historical monuments, Turku Castle and then working on the upcoming youth exchange in Armenia, planning the schedule, sessions, project aim, learning objectives, outcomes and expectations. For the following days there were visits to The Threshold Association, that works on rights on people with special needs, after which another visit was at Troja, local organization supporting local Swedish speaking youth to reintegrate them into society.
The visit to Muvena was about preventing radicalism, where they shared their approach, collaboration with the police and the main work. The last organization that the group visited was a refugee center supported by The Red Cross. They shared the story of their work, the lifestyle of their community that lasted for 30 years. The last day was more about exploring Helsinki and sharing cultural values. The right approach for the integration of the group was done by the help of Finish local participants who took part in ToT in Bulgaria.
« Make Europe Hate Free Again » is a long term training project, the first activity of which was a training of trainers held in Bansko, Bulgaria, 8-16 May 2019.
The second phase is a Job Shadowing in Turku, Finland, 23-31 May 2019. The project is organized and applied by YPE with the partnership of WIYU Armenia NGO, YPE, ADVIT and SONDIP.