The Club´s previous Projects
SERVICE PROJECTS, ROTARY YEAR 2012 – 2013
1) Lucia Fundraising
2) Humanitarian Aid to Syrian Refugees
3) Exchange Students (contact person Stephen Kemppainen)
4) Paul Harris Fellow recognitions x 5
5) Maunula Middle School: School trip in Finland 2013
6) Helsinki City Youth Department: Itäluotsi (East Pilot) Summer Camp and Girls’ Small Group–projects
Maunula Middle School: School trip in Finland 2013
A grant for the bus costs of a one-day school trip and involving the students with Itäluotsi project by organizing an English speaking event.
Helsinki City Youth Department: Itäluotsi (East Pilot)
Summer Camp 2013
Itäluotsi is organizing a summer camp for 10 children, ages between 7-11 yrs., at Kallahti Youth Center in Eastern Helsinki on June 3rd to 7th, 2013. Children are selected in the registration order and come from both immigrant and Finnish families. In addition to professional tutors, there will be two 14-15 years old girls with immigrant background assisting them and thus gaining valuable work experience. HIRC member Emilia Åberg participating in the summer camp.
Small Group for 12-15 years old girls
The group in question consists of eight 12-15 years old girls who have special needs for support since they are extremely shy and avoid social communication. They may have excessively protective or indifferent parents or who haven’t been able to give them experience of normal family life such as shopping and cooking together. Many of them have seldom been outside Itäkeskus and are unfamiliar with using public transportation.
Giving support to youth (12-15 yrs) and their families living in Eastern part of Helsinki.
- Referred by School curator, Child welfare, psychiatric clinic etc.
- Concern about home, school, free-time
- Many have multicultural background, all are from poor families, often single parent families
- Lack of father/reliable male adult
- Risk of marginalization, drop-out, social exclusion
Girls’ Small Group–project KALEVIT
- Interaction with reliable adults…
Facilitators: Marjo Aalto and Riikka Häkkinen - Learning social skills
- Gaining self-esteem and confidence
Rotary Activities in this project in 2013
- Rotary Godparent (Merja Karppinen) present at regular meetings every two weeks
- Meeting HIRC members:
– Ballet Sleeping Beauty Tuesday May 28th, 2013 at 19:00
– September 8th, 2013: Dinner invitation by the girls (more information later)
– Event in November 2013 (concert, museum etc., planned later)
- Weekend camps, going to movies, other activities
HIRC board has earlier granted
– the students at Maunula Coeducational School (Maunulan yhteiskoulu) and Helsingin matematiikkalukio a grant of 500 euros. The grant is for high school students whose´ mother tongue is not Finnish and who study Finnish as a second language. The grant is to be used for the students to see a finnish theatre play.
– City of Helsinki Youth Department Project “Spinnu” a grant of 800 euros for the recruitment of three (3) Estonian or Russian-speaking young people as assistants for a childrens summer camp. The intention is that these assistants will first be trained to work and employment issues during spring 2011 and then they will be able to gain working experience at the summer camp. Spinnu projekt has been started to help young immigrant children from former east-european countries to integrate in to the Finnish society.
– two students at the OMNIA vocational school in Espoo with immigrant background have been granted a scholarship of 50 euros for excellent performance in Finnish language. The Club has granted scholarships to OMNIA students also last year.
2007-2008: Family House “Sahrami” – Donation for computer, projector and an on-line connection.
Sahrami provides immigrant women and their children Finnish language courses, information on Finnish society, culture and services. The aim is to help immigrant women and their children to integrate into the Finnish society.
2008-2009 Sports Team Icehearts and Kany ry – Donation for sports equipmement.
Icehearts Team include children, who would not otherwise have had the opportunity to engage in ice hockey or other team sports. A typical team member is singleparent child and/or an immigrant child. Icehearts´ work is preventive work for child protection, engaging children into team sports at school and during leisure time. Sports Team Kany ry is part of the Helsinki Human Rights Group (09 HHR), an anti-racist education group. The target audience is 11 to 13 years of age. The Team invites also Finnish elite athletes to speak on behalf of tolerance.
Ongoing projects 2009-2010
– Youth Exchange
HIRC has two exhange students every year: Currently Ms. Mari Kawanobe, Japan and Mr. Daniel Franchier, USA.
– HIRC will be handing out sholarships in May 2010 in order to encourage and give recognition to young people of immigrant background, who have shown particular interest and success in learning Finnish language.