Project in a nutshell

Du­ring the aca­de­mic year of 2017-2018 Sa­von­lin­na High School from Fin­land and Sta­sys Šal­kaus­kis Gym­na­sium from Ši­au­li­au Lit­hu­a­nia had a pro­ject cal­led “In­teg­ra­ti­on of Im­mig­rants in Fin­land and Lit­hu­a­nia. How to Re­du­ce Emig­ra­ti­on from Lit­hu­a­nia?”. In both schools 15 stu­dents and two te­ac­hers took part in the class exc­han­ges but more stu­dents and te­ac­hers were in­vol­ved in some ac­ti­vi­ties. Also 14 im­mig­rant stu­dents and two te­ac­hers from Sa­von­lin­na Chris­ti­an Ins­ti­tu­te took part in an art pro­ject in Fin­land. The pro­ject in­vol­ved gat­he­ring know­led­ge about im­mig­ra­ti­on and emig­ra­ti­on du­ring the aca­de­mic year on dif­fe­rent les­sons with the help of fac­tu­al know­led­ge, vi­sits and me­dia such as news ar­tic­les. Fin­nish stu­dents and te­ac­hers vi­si­ted Lit­hu­a­nia in De­cem­ber 2017 and Lit­hu­a­ni­ans were in Sa­von­lin­na at the end of Ap­ril 2018.

Du­ring both vi­sits stu­dents par­ti­ci­pa­ted in works­hops whe­re they got more know­led­ge of the phe­no­me­na. Also in Fin­land the­re was an art pro­ject to­get­her with the im­mig­rant stu­dents at the Ins­ti­tu­te. The art­works were also in an ex­hi­bi­ti­on at the main lib­ra­ry in Sa­von­lin­na for a week for the ge­ne­ral pub­lic. Ac­cor­ding to a feed­back qu­es­ti­on­nai­re the stu­dents le­ar­ned about Fin­land or Lit­hu­a­nia, im­mig­ra­ti­on and emig­ra­ti­on, Eng­lish and how to get along with ot­her pe­op­le. Many said they got new friends and were ex­ci­ted about get­ting to know some im­mig­rant stu­dents and dif­fe­rent cul­tu­res. The im­mig­rant stu­dents found the pro­ject a po­si­ti­ve and be­ne­fi­ci­al ex­pe­rien­ce. The­se were all also a part of the aims of the pro­ject.

The im­pacts on the par­ti­ci­pa­ting or­ga­ni­sa­ti­ons have been po­si­ti­ve. Through the vi­sits, blogs, me­dia and the art ex­hi­bi­ti­on the know­led­ge of the pro­ject has spre­ad wi­der in the par­ti­ci­pa­ting schools and lo­cal com­mu­ni­ties.