How does your donation help?

‘Let’s Meet!’ project is a cooperation between the Estonian Refugee Council, Johannes Mihkelson Centre, and Tartu International House. During the project we will organise 45 different events all around Estonia which means that we will visit 3 times all 15 counties of the country. Our aim is to bring together the beneficiaries of international protection (the refugees), the foreigners living in Estonia and the local population thus challenging the stereotypes surrounding the ‘otherness’ and giving the possibility for everyone to discover new cultures and make personal connections.

Our project has 3 different stages and by now we have reached the end of the first stage. The first stage consists of the events centered around raising awareness on the issues regarding the current refugee crisis as well as the general migration to Estonia. Second stage is centered around the cuisines of different nationalities living in Estonia and will include cooperation with home cafes and restaurants. During the last stage of our project we will organise events in the Estonian Open Youth Centres.

To achieve our main goal we hold different kinds of collective events from cooking workshops to poetry and film nights. So far we have collaborated with numerous organizations, cultural centres, museums, and festivals in Estonia including Tallinn Music Week and the Opinion Festival which we will take part in this August.

As a volunteer you can contribute to our events in many different ways. In the various cooking workshops the volunteers will be the ones to make sure that everything goes smoothly and that all the participants know what to do. This tasks requires a very good command of English since many of our cooks have not yet achieved a sufficient level of  Estonian and the event will most likely be in English. During the Living Library events, the volunteers will make sure that the event’s guests understand the format and core ideas of the library and will direct them towards the chosen books. In addition, the volunteers will make sure that  no-one stays too long with one ‘book’ but listens to others’ stories as well. This is the volunteering opportunity for people who have excellent communication skills and are not afraid to talk to strangers or interrupt conversations if necessary. Often, a good command of English is requires. At many events we also use the virtual reality glasses that require volunteers to facilitate and explain their use. This task is very technical and implies additional availability to meet up and go through the user's guide in detail before the event. 
These are only a few examples of the various tasks that volunteers can contribute with. We organise many events and the format of each event is very different. However, every event has something with which you as a volunteer can help us!

Our events take place in different cities but in the majority of cases the organising team is travelling either from Tallinn or Tartu. In these cases, the volunteers can travel with the team and all the travelling expenses will be covered. To check out the schedule of our upcoming events, consult our homepage, then get in touch and start volunteering!