“Let´s meet!” “Saame tuttavaks!”

Estonian Refugee Council has initiated series of events which bring together migrants and Estonian local people. Activities are held in all Estonian counties (there are 15 counties in Estonia).
In the frames of the events migrants carry out different activities (dancing workshops, cooking classes, handicraft classes etc) to show their cultural background. Sometimes organisers add a lecture or a discussion to those events: they invite Estonian experts to explain wider polical and socioeconomical context of the home country of the migrant(s) participating at the event. Usually, those events are not very big; there are approximately 30-40 participants. Since the goal is to enchance and support interaction between refugees and local communities to reduce fear and stereotypes, events cannot be crowded.

The events enable to get to know each other, create human contacts and new social networks. The aim is to support integration process and also make the local communites more opened to the newcomers.