It is early Saturday morning. The city is almost asleep. There are rare passers-by, and almost no cars on the streets.
But we enliven this morning. We are almost a hundred of people. We are from twelve to seventy years old. We are students, teachers, retirees, and people of different professions and different nationalities. The trip is organized by the public organization “Community of peoples of Karelia”. Pitkyaranta - is not the first point in the region we have visited. It is called “Meetings in the outback”, and the theme of our meetings “Lessons of peace, kindness and respect”.
I am working as a young correspondent of our journalism club “Microphone and Pen” and the school radio station “HoneyHumbleBee” on this trip.
After the three hour journey we find ourselves in the Pitkyaranta second school. We are waited and warmly greeted. And right after the morning coffee all the guests get down to work. So do I. I have the recorder and the list of offices where the unusual for school schedule lessons have begun. I have to catch everything!
Here the fifth graders with Helena Voenushkinoy, the head of the society “Hearth” of friendship with Estonia, frame the maquette of the Hall Square in the Estonian town Narva, learn about the myths and legends associated with the town.
We can hear the music and funny voices from the next office, the 6c class together with the teacher of the Palace of Children and Youth, Elena Saltykova are playing, singing, and stomping loudly. The theme of their lesson - games of different peoples. It’s a very unusual lesson for students, but they like it.
Seventh graders are trying to cook Ukrainian borscht, but only figuratively. They need to choose the right card with all necessary ingredients for the borscht. Girls are interested in Ukrainian embroidery patterns, and one of the guys is interested in carving.
In ancient Rus' children were called names of animals. And if in family had the third child, it could be called “Tretiak”. This name has become the surname of the famous Russian hockey goalkeeper Vladislav Tretyak. Valery Sakina, the director of the Republican Children's Library tells us the history of Russian names.
In the classroom of Elena Antoshko there are not only children but also their parents. Here families share their secrets of family harmony, kindness and respect.
I try to catch everything because the lesson is only forty-five minutes. It is a pity that I couldn’t visit boys, they were having a serious men talk about the traditions of Russian Cossacks. But the door to the hall is a little ajar, and I was able to record a small fragment of a play about Janusz Korczak without disturbing the artists from the studio of artistic word “Glagol”. Janusz Korczak was teacher from Warsaw who sacrifice his life for the sake of children and burned along with his inmates in Nazi gas chambers.
But when the bell rang, we, together with the journalist Svetlana Zaalovoy led the round table discussion for school owners and their guests.
Here's what some participants said during the conversation:
Milana Redkovets, the seventh-grader: “I liked the atmosphere of the lesson. I realized that people of different nationalities are not so different”.
Jura, the eighth-grader: “When we, as representatives of the invented peoples were trying to seek contact, we developed logical thinking”.
Larisa Savchuk, the history teacher: “Such meetings are necessary to get rid of enmity”
Elena Kalichenok, the coordinator of the Movement of Russian Schoolchildren “Two buses of people left Pitkyaranta inspired, filled with good”.
Lisa Filippova, the sixth-grade 46th school of Petrozavodsk.
Actual events
April 21, 10:00-15:00
Training seminar for young people
in the Institute of Economics of the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences
НП "КАРЕЛЬСКИЙ РЕСУРСНЫЙ ЦЕНТР ОБЩЕСТВЕННЫХ ОРГАНИЗАЦИЙ"
185035, Республика Карелия, г. Петрозаводск, ул. Гоголя, д. 1, офис 232
Nikolay Oskin, the Director General of Karelian Resource Center of NGOs met with Nikolay Laguta, the Head of Kondopoga Metropolitan Region, in Kondopoga on June 2, 2015 as a part of “Developing the Concept of Interethnic Accord in the Republic of Karelia: Creating a Common Ground for NPOs and State Bodies”.
The event was coincided to the creation of the “travelling” Center for Interethnic Cooperation based on a “travelling” library complex Bibliobus in Kondopoga. The parties exchanged their opinions concerning the priorities and stages of NGOs, regulatory bodies and expert communities’ cooperation in the domain of national policy implementation and the regional migration policy, in particular. Finally, they came to a joint decision aimed at increasing effectiveness of the third sector and state bodies activity as well as at migrants’ social adaptation improvement. The meeting was quite productive. It created the opportunities for strengthening the cooperation between Kondopoga Metropolitan Region and Karelian Resource Center of NGOs that correspond with both parties’ ambitions.
Besides, the Center’s representatives met with Elena Karnysheva, the Head of the International Cooperation Center in Kondopoga. She pointed out that it is vital to provide financial and informational support for the Center for Interethnic Cooperation. In his turn, Nikolai Oskin made it clear that he is ready to help re-equip the Center and provide assistance in the near future.
Eventually, the “travelling” Center for Interethnic Cooperation made its first trip all round Kondopoga region. The Center’s achievements may serve as an impetus to create similar centers in other regions of Karelia.
Round table devoted to “The Model of the Interaction of Civil Society Institutions with State Bodies in the Sphere of Interethnic Relations Harmonization” was held on 25 June 2015. It was organized within the framework of the project “Developing the Concept of Interethnic Accord in the Republic of Karelia: Creating a Common Ground for NCOs and State Bodies” that is implemented within the framework of a Karelia’s national program “The Development of Civil Society Institutions and Local Self-Government, People’s and Citizens’ Rights and Freedoms Protection” during the years of 2014-2020.
Irina Romanova, the Chief of the Social Development Department of the Olonets Region, Nikolay Oskin, the Director General of Karelian Resource Center of NGOs, Dmitry Labegin, the Leading Specialist of the Ministry of the Republic of Karelia for National Politics, Relations with Public and Religious Associations and Mass started the meeting with welcoming remarks. Besides, Svetlana Andreeva, the Head of the Center of Social and Cultural Adaptation affiliated with the Olonets National Library, the representatives of the Department of the Federal Migration Service in Olonets Region, the Olonets Employment Center, the Social Work Center of the Olonets Region, the Center of Social Service of the Olonets Region, educational institutions and public organizations of the Olonets Region also took an active part in the discussion.
One of the topic of the discussion was the development of the “Multicultural Barometer”, a tool that allows to familiarize any interested party with the situation in the sphere of migration and multicultural relations.
24 February 2015
Pitkyaranta
The interethnic
cooperation centers
More news
“Karelian resource Centre of non-governmental organizations” in the framework of the project “Republic of the diverse cultures” will extend the network of the interehnic cooperation centers, which have been working in 9 municipalities of the Republic of Karelia since 2007. The aim of centers’ activity is consolidation of an international agreement with creation of a favourable social environment for the representatives of various nationalities who want to visit regions. In April there will be the official opening of the Center on the basis of the Pitkyaranta town library.