Valentine’s Day is understood as the day of friendship in Finland. Experience Workshop and Jyvälän Settlementi celebrated it together with friends and colleagues and a lot of STEAM tools at the youth culture center Veturitallit (which used to be an locomotive repair station once):
- there were people from the Tuu ja tee (learning by doing) group which brings people of different cultural backgrounds together to learn from each other.
- then there was the Oma polku (own path) group of young immigrants who came to Finland without their families.
And then friends of friends, students and youth and children joined to build the giant dome of friendship.
Sharifa and Naim baked loads of Afghan bread:
With the smell of fresh bread in the air, the giant 4D Frame dome was planned, workgroups formed, tasks divided, experiences shared, until the hundreds of tubes and sticks began to take shape:
Some of us made friendship strings in the meantime:
In the break we enjoyed the food in each other’s company:
…and in the end we finally inhabited the dome by singing together the Harambee song of friendship and sharing our ideas and wishes about the world of our dreams.
The event is part of the Sillat (Bridges) project, a collaboration between Experience Workshop and Jyvälän Settlements. It is funded by the Finnish National Agency for Education.