Blog – Page 3 – StepEurope

Finland’s Bright Future for Sustainable Development

November 2, 2017 by

Finland has been promoting sustainable development for many years. As Finland is reaching 100 years, The National Commission on Sustainable Development headed by Prime Minister Juha Sipilä wants to provide a special gift to Finland- a more sustainable future. To achieve this the commission introduced the Society’s Commitment to Sustainable Development, laying down the shared goals and the framework for sustainable development across Finland.

Finnish people are actively working to promote sustainable development to provide for a better future. In October the University of Turku together with the Student Union hosted Sustainable Development Week. They had a wide range of activities to promote and enhance thinking on sustainable development in the country. There was an insect evening, providing info on how to solve worlds hunger problems with a session focusing on how Insect and Cricket Farms can be used as a good source of food in the future. Otto Selenius, an insect specialist, presented on the topic and even offered an opportunity to try cooking and eating crickets at the venue. In addition, there was a documentary film shown called Little Yellow Boots, Inequality Coffee, a flea market & program about sustainable consuming. This event really spread awareness to students and all participants on how to really implement sustainable development in daily life.

StepEurope ry also got in on the cause and movement. This summer StepEurope ry organized a Gardening Project. The organization believes that sustainability is an essential subject in today’s World, where our generation is facing big challenges like global warming and climate change. The Gardening Project aimed to provide basic knowledge about gardening, tools to live a more sustainable life as an individual and be more aware of the environment. They had organized to plant crops in Elävän Kulttuurin Koroinen to promote sustainable living in their region. The team provided an enriching program including hands-on work in the garden, workshops and interesting speeches and documentaries about sustainability. Of course, at the end of the summer, all participants and their families were invited to a huge party where all the harvest from the garden was used to prepare a meal and bond again over their hard work!

In Finland, not only students and organizations are players in the sustainable development movement many companies and individuals such as Finnair, Neste, Ilmi Salminen- UN Youth Delegate of Finland, Anne Nuorgam representing the Sámi Council and many more are actively participating! Finland’s participation is truly inspiring and a model to strive for in implementation of sustainable development in the future. StepEurope is excited about the future and is confident that sustainable development will take off and keep thriving in Finland.

-Yuliya

Multicultural experience in Loughborough – Peace Project 2017

October 10, 2017October 26, 2017 by

The Peace Project 2017, organized by Equality Actions, was an Erasmus+ training that gathered 30 young volunteers from different parts of Europe to discuss themes related to local, community-level work for peace. During these eight days in a small English town Loughborough, we learned about cultural and religious diversity, root causes of extremist thinking among youth, and ways to improve intercultural, interfaith dialogue in communities. The trainers highlighted non-formal learning as the most effective and in the end, most common way to gain knowledge and competencies. It showed in practice in different plays and games, workshops, group discussions, lectures and visits. On top of learning about the key themes and methods, we got chance to make friends across Europe, familiarize ourselves with different cultures and worldviews from Latvia to Macedonia or from Hungary to Italy, to spend time together, go out, tourist around in the medieval city of Nottingham, share some thoughts, experiences and ideas for the future projects.

Robin’s thoughts: To note, Loughborough became LOVEborough in our minds. The plays and the games (also known as energizers) were massively important and fun! In order for the group to loosen up and work more efficiently together we needed those. It was a fun way to get to know each other, to keep the brain sharp and focused for the different tasks in hand. About the learning of different cultures. Even knowing, which countries would participate, I did not expect that we would be so different. In fact, after the experience, I think all of us who participated share in some core sense the same culture. #WellDuh The differences in my mind were superficial but enjoyed learning about these differences still! Tasting eachothers culinary wonders (also in liquid form) is a fun and good way to bond! I think, personally, the real experiencing of different cultures came when we got to familiarize with asian religions, places of worship, rituals/traditions, and different asian food dishes.

It was not a coincidence that a training emphasizing the idea of peaceful, multicultural communities was held in the neighboring town to Leicester that was elected the most ’ethnically diverse city’ in the whole UK. Half of the population of Leicester describe themselves as white British, whereas nationally the percentage is 80. Religious diversity of Leicester is striking. They have the highest rate of hindus in UK outside London. It has 55 mosques, 18 Hindu temples, nine Sikh gurdwaras, two synagogues, two Buddhist centres and one Jain centre. Atheists represent 23 per cent of the population.

The cultural and religious diversity is declared as the city’s strength by the mayor. Yet again, there has been a lot of effort by the community leaders – hindus, sikhs, muslims, christians, atheists – to engage in an interfaith dialogue and cooperation. In times of conflict or expression of extremist thoughts, representatives of different faiths talk together out in the public, side by side, to weaken the polarization. During our training, we got to meet the Loughborough Council of Faiths (the Interfaith Network).

Robin: I was very much fascinated by the Loughborough Council of Faiths. A lot of the time I was thinking.. what do we not have in Finland? What do we lack? Finland is getting more multicultural in an increasing tempo and different cultural and religious groups immigrate to Finland. My small home town of origin, (Jakobstad, 20 000 people), is very much religiously diverse and I think this is the perfect model to look up to and implement. This model builds bridges between different groups of people, generates trust or social capital to use some fancy words.

We also committed one day to visit different religious sites of Leicester: a mosque, a Sikh temple, and the Jain centre. The goal of the day was to see, listen, learn, taste, finally, to understand worldviews behind different faiths. One could see how diversity was welcomed in the streets of Leicester and Loughborough by the various decorative symbols indicating festivities of different religious groups.

Robin: These visits lowered the threshold to just go and visit one place of worship. A coworker of mine said that I should go and check out this Buddhist temple in Turku where I live. Now after the course, I feel that.. why not! Would be interesting to see how it looks like and just sit and observe. Hopefully meet some people and have a respectful conversation.

The eight training days brought us new experiences, new friends, more understanding of cultural variety of Europe, and above all, the lesson from Leicester: through the dialogue across cultural, political and religious boundaries we make the most out of cultural diversity, and reach for more peaceful communities.

Robin’s thoughts concluded: What Mari mentioned above. FRIENDS. We bonded incredibly well (#Goku #MagicMan), and we all have places to stay in Europe if we want to travel.

For all my finnish and european brothers and sisters reading this.. I hear Macedonia is INCREDIBLE… buuuuuut I will go to Sardinia (#NoPothoReposare #HeavenOnEarth #ItsTrue). I am going to miss every single person I met during the course and I will cherish these memories forever. To all of you who live in Finland, feeling interested and intrigued, LOOK INTO WHAT STEPEUROPE HAS TO OFFER. Fantastic ORGANIZATION OFFERING YOU GREAT OPPORTUNITIES TO DEVELOP AND GROW! #XOXO #SneakyCommercial #Mwhaha

Photos by Yasser Ait Rais and Hiron Miah (thank you for sharing those)

-Mari

Mahdollisuuksien tori – the Opportunities market

September 21, 2017October 27, 2017 by

StepEurope ry has participated one important event for promoting, networking and advertising the organization – Mahdollisuuksien tori. It is a nation wide event a round twenty locations in Finland yearly. Sondip ry, an umbrella organization, which stood for promoting internationalism and multiculturalism, has successfully organized the event on Sunday 17^th in Turku.

Although the event was set to happen between 12 -16 at the old market square, few of our volunteers had to arrive at 10:30 in the morning to arrange our corner, the table and tent. Most importantly, as an out side event we were lucky enough to have a shining and warm weather through out the day to attract more visitors.

Variety of organizations participated the event whose working areas vary from cultural, social, sport, art, youth work, environmental and humanitarian works. These organizations include among others, Finnish Red Cross, UNICEF, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace. All organizations presented their activities in different manners they deem attract visitors and at the same time deliver their message and recruit potential members and volunteers. Mostly it was in the form of quizzes, fun games, drawings, competitions, and discussions. Overall, the program was entertaining as well with interviews, music and dances from the main stage.

In our part we prepared fun game to attract visitors and become more visible to recruit potential young volunteers. In a way we tried to show case what we have done so far and will do in the upcoming events. We have actually encountered really interesting like-minded young people from the event and exchange ideas what they think about volunteer works and impact positively in the society locally and international as well. We also took some visitor’s contact so that we could reach out to them on our activities and if they wish become our members too.

In the afternoon around 14.00, Sudhir, StepEurope ry’s active volunteer and media coordinator, took the stage and had an interview with the presenter about his volunteer experience at StepEurope ry. He eventually advertised our organization on what it is about and what we do.

Overall, it was such an important event as it brought together varies organizations and people from different backgrounds. It was a platform to create networking with other organizations to cooperate in future activities. Personally, the event happened at the wake of my new journey as an intern at StepEurope ry. I am optimistic and exited to be part of such vibrant members and volunteer alike.

-Elias

End season party in Kaarina –Volunteer’s Experience

September 5, 2017October 27, 2017 by

After being an active volunteer in StepEurope ry about a half a year, I got an invitation from Ronja, the Project Coordinator, to the End of the season party. The event was two days long 4.-5.7.2017, which took place in Vuolahti camp, Kaarina. Vuolahti is a beautiful place middle of the forest and nearby the sea, in Kuusisto about 20 minutes away from Kaarina city centre. It was nice place to spend time together.

I think it was special night, not only because of the beautiful view, but also because of the incredible participants and nice atmosphere. We had participants from nine different countries: Finland, Slovenia, Angola, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Iraq, Nepal and Domenic Republic. This was a real opportunity for all of us to get to know each other. It was the first time for me to meet the StepEurope ry’s chair, Melina and the International coordinator, Teddy.

The evening included planning session about the upcoming autumn events. We were divided into four groups and discussed about 25 minutes. After the discussion we selected one person to give the presentation of the group’s ideas. The ideas included local activities and how to involve volunteers in the future.

The evening was full of fun! We had Summer Olympics, BBQ and sauna. In the Olympics we were playing for instance Mölkky the Finnish throwing game and the Donkey Tale. Later we were dancing and singing, had music from all around the World! The experience was much of fun for me. Can’t forget the sauna and swimming in the sea in the midnight!

This is just one of the nice moments of being a volunteer. Volunteering has been giving me a lot: new friends and opportunities together with the amazing feeling of doing something reasonable!

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time: they have the heart.”

-Hassan

A story of my NGO life – “if you want to make a change in people’s life, start from yourself”

August 23, 2017October 26, 2017 by

This is my story of ”how I became an active citizen and got the desire to make the difference around me”.

I was a young girl living in a small town called Hyvinkää, Finland. I wanted to gain new experiences and see the World! Guy called Ossi was working in the youth department. He was part of the Youth in action program and said to me: ”Saila, why don’t you do EVS?” I was unsure and I didn’t know the program, but anyway I didn’t have to think twice and answered: ”Yes, why not.” I applied and got my #EVS place in Stuttgart, Germany. I was really lucky, even I was the first EVS volunteer in that organisation (#Jugendwerk der Awo e.v). They treated me so well and I had a chance to do and learn many different things during my 10 months volunteering.

EVS experience is something excellent for a human mind! You got chance to explore totally new country and culture, meet new people, learn things about yourself and of course, at last but definitely not the least, you learn professional things for your future and maybe even a career.

I have been so lucky to get the chance to do EVS (thanks to EU and Erasmus program). After I returned home, I had the feeling that I want to make the similar experience to be possible to someone else. I just didn’t know how… Years later I decide to apply to #HUMAK inspired by my EVS experience and got a place from youth work and civic activities degree. When I graduated I also got a super titel ”Community Educator”. I love it! 🙂

Several years after my volunteer experience, I had the feeling that it would be great and fruitful to be part of an youth NGO. By an accident I got to know #StepEurope. Now I am part of the board and actively involved to the local and international actions of the organization. I have actually come to an conclusion that the great things in life mostly happens by accident. So happend now as well!

StepEurope has been giving me a lot! I didn’t know the founders before I came to the organisation. It is great to be part of the team. I have been part of the board since 2015 spring and the last 2 years has been full of learning.

Some examples about the good experiences in StepEurope ry:

I have got the chance to make real grass root level actions
Can really challenge myself as person and now as a vice president
Met new people who I wouldn’t otherwise meet
- people from all around the World and planning so surprising things with them
Did things I wouldn’t ever think to do
- jumping in the ice cold water and running back to Sauna in the middle of the night
- write the work rules in a cafeteria at 10PM on Monday evening
- etc.

Overall my point is that, if you want to make a change in people’s life, start from yourself. Be active and do things that you have always dreamed about!

While writing this text I have come to conclusion that it has been great to take part of creating a small piece of history by creating the ”StepEuropeans” 🙂

-Saila

Informal Learning in the heart of Bass-Country- StepEurope Volunteer’s Experience

August 2, 2017October 27, 2017 by

At the end of June group of 21 eager seminar participants gathered together in Renteria, small village next to one of Bass-country’s capital San Sebastian. Participants came from six different countries around Europe, from Poland, Latvia, Germany, Estonia, Sweden, Spain and of course Finland. We had seven days ahead of us, time to learn, to share experiences and get to know each other.

Topic of the seminar was divided in two parts – celebration of Erasmus program that is turning 30 years and non-formal learning. Most of the participants had participated in Erasmus+ program and they had lots of stories to tell about their time spend abroad studying or participating seminars. Others had experience working with education and learning – formal and non-formal.

During the seminar everyone was active part of the program. Participants led some of the sessions, and in others they chose the direction by participating and sharing their own point of views. We learned about education systems in other countries, what is non-formal learning and how is it different from formal learning. We shared visions of future – what could be done differently in our countries, and in Europe in general so that learning and education could be more effective and beneficial. And while doing all that we also got to know each other’s and our home countries a bit more, new connections and friendship were made, some seeds planted for future projects and co-operations.

Between all the learning, talking and exercises we had some time to explore as well. Organizers of the seminar did their best to tell us a little bit about where we were – about Bass country, its culture, history and even language. We did some trips to explore the village we were living and also the beautiful city of Saint Sebastian.

Considering the common image of Spain – pictures of long beaches, palm trees, tourists all around and long sunny days, area where we spent out time was something completely different. Northern Spain, Bass-country, has lots of hills, unsteady weather, beaches with beautiful (and huge) waves. Everywhere where you look at you could see green – not palm leaves green, but a real forest green. San Sebastian is an old city, with beautiful beach line, own set of hills and viewpoints and old stone buildings. Well worth of visit, though you might need a raincoat with you.

All in all, our seminar was a good experience. It was full of laughter and encouraging words, it offered things to learn and things to think thru and then think again. It offered us a chance to get to know a different side of Spain than I expected and to meet people, I might not have met in another case.

-Johanna

A Study Trip- and the Bob’s your uncle

July 21, 2017October 27, 2017 by

On Sunday 18.6.2017 Finnish Red Cross South-West District’s youths left to a five-days study trip to England. The trip was planned together with a Finnish Red Cross volunteer Henrika, youth action coordinator (Finnish Red Cross) Sara and StepEurope Ry’s international coordinator Teddy and president Melina. Also the participants had a chance to give their hints for the free time activities.

Most of the youths were familiar with each other in advance, but also a few new faces participated. The group became one in a short time and the atmosphere was high from the very first day regardless of the tiredness. Many of the participants have been an active member of Finnish Red Cross earlier in first aid, multicultural actions and/or youth actions.

The trip included visit to the huge British Red Cross headquarters in London. Over there we met Hugo, who is the Incharge of the asylum seekers and refugee actions in Red Cross. He was telling quite carefully about the activities and support they are offering. A big difference is for instance that in England the Red Cross does not provide reception centres at all like we do in Finland.

On the same day we travelled from London to an idyllic small town called Canterbury. We had a dinner and short walk in the riverside. We got a hint about a place, which is serving the best mojitos in the town, so we visited a lovely pub, mixture of historic walls and big modern glass windows.

During our stay in Canterbury was the International Refugee Day. The day included many activities in the town. We visited an exhibition of an art project related to the refugees. We also had a chance to visit the British Red Cross Canterbury’s office. There we met youth action coordinator, Ben. He was interested to hear how the things are in Finland and also told us about their ways of supporting the people nearby. Later we had a historic tour about Canterbury. The guide was awesome!

Folkstone, what a beautiful town next to the sea! The reason we took a bus from Canterbury to Folkstone was Kent Refugee Action Network, which aims to help and support the young asylum seekers who are living alone. We went to see their office and had a long walk in the town with the employees, volunteers and young asylum seekers.

Beside all the interesting visits, we were also having picnics, time for shopping, dinners and just good time with the group! A nice trip indeed! The trip would not have been so great and well organized, if Melina and Teddy would not have been spending time and effort to book tables in restaurants, making appointments with the visit places and organizing the picnics and tours in Canterbury. Also a big thank for Finnish Red Cross for offering such an amazing chances for youths to explore different cultures and ways of behaving! Thank you so much!

-Ronja (StepEurope ry, project coordinator)

Europe’s Refugee Crisis Training- An Experience from a Volunteer

July 6, 2017October 27, 2017 by

Hi there!

I´m going to tell you about a trip that was beyond what I ever thought it would be. I was somewhat familiar with StepEurope when a friend and member of StepEurope gave me a small poke on facebook and wrote to me, more or less.. “hey Robin.. there is this an 8-day long course about the refugee crisis in England, try it out!”. The theme of the course was very interesting and ALSO, I found out most of the travel expenses would be compensated for and that the lodging and the meals were taken care of. After getting this info, I was like.. “holy *beep*, this trip is happening!” At the moment I wasn´t aware but I can tell you that this course was happening within the frames of Erasmus+ ..which more or less funded the whole project/course to my knowledge.

Fast forward again and we arrive at the wonderful Asha centre in Gloucester (England). During our stay, we got to know people from Denmark, France, Germany, UK, USA, Italy and the Netherlands. It´s very hard to describe how you get to bond so well with so many people in only about 8 days. Something wise I picked up during our stay there was: the more we open up and share… the more likely we make stronger connections with each other. It went more or less like that. In a super tight nutshell of all the things we did there: icebreaking games (a lot of them.. and they were FUN!), teamwork games, all kinds of workshops (also relating to the refugee crisis), LSD (not the drug but.. Listen, Summarize, Discuss), volleyball, shopping, beer drinking, visiting a church that has something to do with Harry Potter, visit from Baroness Janet Royall, two evenings of campfires, social dancing lesson, singing lesson, we had as a participant a fantastic person who told us about his struggles when he as a refugee made his way through the Balkans and all to the UK, two mornings of swimming in a holy ancient pool of spring water.

Ok, let´s continue: pub visit (EPIC, lot´s of beer, funny pictures, other beverages and socializing), international food tasting (Finland offered.. salmiakki candy.. mmmmmm..), card games, learning about the FANTASTIC Asha centre and getting to know the volunteers who work there (they rule #xoxo), we ate a massive amount of delicious dishes of all kinds. Blew my mind really. And one more thing relating to food, don´t put pineapple on your pizza. If an Italian saw you eating pizza with pineapple on it, you could choke her or him to death. It´s true. Two things that I saved to the end of this blog post of mine are the two visits we did. One to Garage and the other one to Grange Village. In Garage (asylum and refugee centre) we got to hear how their organisation works and a lot about how the system works in the UK and misc. info relating to asylum seekers and refugees. Then we have Grange Village, I would describe it as a very warm place, you really felt welcomed there. Grange Village is a home for people with special needs and they produce a lot as well. It´s seemed pretty much self-reliant. What impressed me was the ceramics and the handicrafts they created and also sold.

Now to round this up and finish. I´m gonna miss the place and everything I experienced there during those 8 days. Besides learning about the refugee crisis in different ways, we, the participants also bonded and learned from each other. Whatever that was. For me, it was an opportunity to soul search as I´m sure it was for the rest as well. I´m not gonna miss the passport checking douche in Riga airport on my way home to Turku but I have plenty of happy memories, drive and energy. All of which I picked up because I choose to participate in this course.

Not to be a salesman… KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN ON WHAT STEPEUROPE HAS TO OFFER OK!?? GOOD!

Best regards,

Robin #Hugs #OnlyNeed5minToPack #Kidding #LoL

Experiences from an Erasmus Programme

June 15, 2017October 27, 2017 by

I stumbled on an Erasmus+ programme by accident through StepEurope ry while I was volunteering for Red Cross (StepEurope’s cooperation organization). After realising that even I at my forties could take this opportunity to develop my skills, I applied immediately to the Entrepreneurship Laboratory training in Loughborough, a little but famous university town, nearby Leicester.

Preparations and joining this programme requires a bit of work if you wish to make the most of it. Our goal was to make start-up from the initial business idea which was presented at the beginning of the programme. This EntLab is only one example of what Erasmus can offer, there are programmes for younger people with agendas like cultural awareness and for graduates who wish to enhance their skills, just to mention a couple.

For joining an Erasmus programme abroad you normally need to book your flights and travel yourself, but you will get reimbursed this money when you arrive to the location or further along in the programme depending how long it is. Our EntLab had three onsite modules and two at home for a duration of nearly a year in 2016.

After arriving to Loughborough we met our fellow 32 participants from 8 different countries. It was a brilliant mix of people between 18-45 year old individuals, and I wasn’t even the oldest. Most important thing is to be open-minded and maybe 18 at heart… My roommates were from UK and Romania, and I created lifelong friendships during the programme, also I’ll always have a place to visit in these 8 different countries!

We had an international evening to kick start the programme and getting to know each other. Every country’s participants presented some facts about their culture, shared local food, or teached a local dance. Finnish people teached the others how to do ”Letkajenkka” among other things.

The days were long, but we were offered good lunch and dinner, along with some breakfast money which we were able to use how we wanted. The red thread in the programme was creating and working around a canvas model for developing a business model. This model gives an easy glance to the ideas and may be used also to social enterprises.

After saying the days were long one shouldn’t forget that there is of course always room for parties, as we were given some free time and later mornings in the schedule.

We made some interesting excursions like visiting a hindu temple and ”the Golden Mile” in Leicester, and learned a lot from different cultures within a city in the middle of UK. By learning and respecting other cultures may give a huge advantage in how you approach your customers in your market, especially if you wish to go international.

Teambuilding day took us to an adventure park/manor nearby with beautiful landscape and fun exercises.

Dragon’s Den was one of the highlights of the programme where we had the chance to present our business ideas to succesful local entrepreneurs! This was the first time I’ve ever made a promotional video, so even this was a learning experience.

All in all this was an excellent programme, and my only wish is that I would have found Erasmus years ago! I can only recommend Erasmus trainings, especially to young people; do take the opportunity to see the world and learn in an inspiring environment with great people and skillfull trainers!

This is why I’m now volunteering with StepEurope and hope to create awareness about these opportunities to others.

More information about Erasmus+ programmes: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/individuals_en

– Niina