Project competition to increase civic awareness and tolerance of young people
Jana Tondi appointed head of multi-cultural education unit
Free support person service offered to foreigners that have recently come to Estonia
Project competition to increase civic awareness and tolerance of young people
Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) has announced a project competition through which altogether 31,960 euro will be allocated to improve civic awareness of 7–23 year old young people.
The aim of the competition is to extend the knowledge of pupils whose language of instruction is Estonian and Russian about Estonian society, recognise Estonian citizenship and being a citizen, maintain citizen’s day tradition and improve tolerance in multi-cultural organisations.
Events and materials regarding civic awareness and tolerance, including multi-cultural events, cooperation between young people from different ethnic groups, creation of thematic materials and aids, organised by non-profit organisations registered in Estonia, state authorities or local governments will be supported within the framework of the competition.
“Similar projects have been written and implemented during similar competitions since 2003 and pupils have organised joint events focused on various topics from quizzes celebrating the citizen’s day to tolerance-themed events and photo competitions during these years,” commented Toivo Sikk, coordinator of the MISA multi-cultural education unit.
According to Sikk, hikes introducing the topic of citizenship have been organised, meetings with interesting people from Estonia have been held, school newspapers have been published, photo boards and other various informative materials have been put together.
The deadline for project submission is 15 April at 16:00. Additional information regarding the requirements of the project competition and necessary documentation are available on the MISA home page.
Implementation of the competition is supported by the Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of “Estonian Integration Strategy 2008–2013”.
Further information: Toivo Sikk, MISA multi-cultural education unit, coordinator, tel. 659 9850, e-mail toivo.sikk@meis.ee
Jana Tondi appointed head of multi-cultural education unit
Jana Tondi works as head of the multi-cultural education unit of Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA) from 20 March.
Jana Tondi has been working as a life-long education unit coordinator in MISA since 2010. She was responsible for the language learning activities financed from the European Social Fund and she coordinated additional Estonian language learning activities for public sector employees and students at higher education level.
Jana Tondi graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Tallinn Pedagogical University specialising in teaching Russian language and literature in Estonian schools.
She has worked as senior researcher at the Russian language department of Tallinn Pedagogical University, lecturer on the Estonian language as a foreign language at Narva College, and Narva College of the University of Tartu where she worked as head of the administrative unit and also as acting director.
Further information: Jana Tondi, head of MISA multi-cultural education unit, tel. 659 9069, e-mail jana.tondi@meis.ee
Free support person service offered to foreigners that have recently come to Estonia
With the help of the Integration and Migration Foundation Our People (MISA), support person services are offered to third-country nationals that have been in Estonia less than three years.
The project “Support person service for integration of new immigrants in Estonia” (Tugiisikuteenus uusimmigrantide lõimumiseks Eestis - TULE) is designed for new immigrants that are third-country nationals, have been living in Estonia less than three years and have legal grounds for staying in Estonia.
With this project MISA wishes to strengthen the network of support persons and improve the capability and readiness of the state to provide the target group with the necessary support to integrate into and manage in Estonian society.
The project enables to offer support person services to at least 60 new immigrants all over Estonia with the help of support persons that have undergone the appropriate training.
“Johannes Mihkelsoni Keskus, the winner of the MISA project competition, provides the support person service which in addition to personal private counselling offers also an Internet-based e-counselling platform,” explained Ruslan Prohhorenko, coordinator of the MISA civic education and migration unit.
“Support person services is a new option in addition to an already well-established new immigrant adaptation programme and enables us to deal with people’s needs more individually. Support persons assist third-country nationals that have come to Estonia in finding information on different topics starting from education or Estonian language learning to medical care and social services,” explained Prohhorenko.
According to Prohhorenko, the support persons also introduce third-country nationals to Estonian society, way of life and culture and help them to adapt to life in Estonia.
“If necessary, psychological counselling is offered, help is provided in case there is a need for interpreting, they are aided in finding a job or in-service training opportunities and all necessary assistance is offered to make the transition to life in Estonia as smooth as possible,” said Prohhorenko.
You can find the e-counselling platform of the project for new immigrants here. The project lasts from 1 August 2012 to 30 November 2013.
The Integration and Migration Foundation Our People finances the project from the European Fund for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals and the national budget through the Ministry of Culture. The project cost is 29,986 euro.
Further information about the support person service: Veronika Varep, project manager of Johannes Mihkelsoni Keskus, tel. 530 638 93, e-mail veronika@jmk.ee, home page www.jmk.ee
General additional information: Ruslan Prohhorenko, MISA civic education and migration unit, coordinator, tel. 659 9035, e-mail ruslan.prohhorenko@meis.ee
