Última actualización Domingo, 02/03/2025
Ever wondered how young people from different countries connect? At the end of August, I joined the «Socialising Unites Us» camp in Estonia, where Ukrainian and Estonian young peoples bonded through games and cultural exchange, celebrating Ukraine’s Independence Day with support from the European Solidarity Corps.
It’s the end of August in Estonia and just when I thought that the summer was over I received an invitation to attend an Erasmus Solidarity Project bringing together Ukrainian and Estonian youth. Already knowing a little about this project made me even more interested. So I packed my things and prepared myself to attend a 2-day Youth Camp in Võsu, Estonia. The project was called “Socialising Unites Us” and was supported by the European Solidarity Corps.
The day started early in Tallinn with an hour’s drive towards the camp. While driving you can feel the sun coming through the window, see the beautiful nature nearby and even some people picking mushrooms on the side of the road.
© Greta Orehhova, 2024
In the camp, we first had a short introduction session followed by an interesting painting game where communication, creativity, numbers and a lot of laughter were combined. The task was simple: “Write 15 random words and wait for the next info”. Once the words were written, we gathered around a big table. Every time we would hear a number we had to draw the thing written on the paper we were given. Each next round the instruction became more interesting than the previous one: “Take the person’s hand on your right side and draw with it”, “draw while being blindfolded” or “cross hands with someone and then try to draw”. Beforehand, I didn’t feel much connection between people, but after this activity, it was definitely there.
After lunch, we took our path to the beach, where we found a village swing, which is something quite common in Estonia. Everyone loved it. Besides swinging and singing, some of us also went swimming and played volleyball.
© Greta Orehhova, 2024
In the evening, we’ve engaged in some teamwork games and right after it was already time for the highlight of this meeting – the bonfire. We grilled some sausages, played a question game to get to know each other even better, listened to Ukrainian pop music and chatted about our cultures – Estonian and Ukrainian. The vibes were good and everyone was happily dancing and enjoying themselves.
The second day at camp started with a yoga stretch circle where each of us demonstrated one exercise to get us all warmed up ! After that, we had breakfast and, as a last activity, we played some classic Estonian childhood games (for example Heeringas, heeringas 123 and Pallikull). The day was even more special because it was Ukraine’s Independence Day. Even though the war is still going on and it doesn’t seem it is going to end soon, youngsters attending the camp were positive and enjoyed the whole group experience.
I also had the opportunity to talk to the project’s writer and manager of the Deutsch-Baltischen Zukunftsstiftung (German-Baltic Future Foundation) Kirsti Sinivee. She was more than happy to answer some of my questions:
Where did the idea to make the meeting between Estonian and Ukrainian youth come from?
- Currently, I am working for the German-Baltic Future Foundation and this organisation offers networking mostly for young people from Baltic states and Germany, but also for Ukrainians. Our wish has been to do something nice for Ukrainians too but unfortunately, we haven’t had the chance until now. Last year I took part in one Erasmus+ training course in Vienna, Austria, and there I was together with people who work with young people and refugees, and overall deal with migration and other serious issues. There, I met someone working with Ukrainian refugees who mentioned that Ukrainian youth finish school early and have nothing to do afterwards. Hearing this inspired me to create a project that offered activities and support during the war while helping them explore Estonian culture.
Who is this project meant for?
- It is a community project so there isn’t a certain age limit, but mostly the youth are between 15-17 years. To avoid having too big of an age cap, the youngest participant should be at least 12. Everyone is welcome and will surely find an activity that they enjoy. While the project is primarily for Ukrainians, people from other nations are also welcome.
What are the next steps for your project?
- The duration of the whole project is 9 months (from August 2024 till April 2025) and there are activities every month. Next time we will have an AI workshop at the Arts Academy of Estonia (EKA, Eesti Kunstiakadeemia). There is also a planned hiking in a bog as well as Christmas and Easter celebrations. All ideas connected with activities come from young people so it’s “from youth to youth”.
How can people get to know more about this project?
- We use different types of social media (Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin) and more detailed information can be found on our website, where we update the info regularly. Otherwise, we also send the info to some schools where hopefully teachers/coordinators share it along.
What did participants themselves say about the 2-day camp?
- I also asked two participants – a girl and a boy – about their thoughts on this 2-day youth camp. Both agreed that the most enjoyable activity was the first day’s bonfire, but they also liked the games they played throughout the day and being able to do it in teams. They both heard about this project from a worker in Eesti Pagulasabi (Estonian Refugee Council) who invited them. The boy mentioned that for him the biggest learning was how to communicate with each other, while the girl agreed that using English to communicate was very useful to improve their language skills.
I have found that, since the war in Ukraine has started and after spending weeks helping Ukrainians in refugee shelters, I rarely saw them participating in activities, especially young people. After this recent 2-day camp, I decided to check how many Ukrainians have fled to Estonia since the war began, and the numbers are shockingly high compared to Estonia’s population. As of early 2024, 60,414 people with Ukrainian citizenship live in Estonia, of whom 57 per cent (about 34,000 people) are war refugees. Nearly 11,000 of them are young people.
Despite the challenging numbers and situation, I was happy to spend these two days with Estonian and Ukrainian youth.
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Young Journalists in Europe – Meet the author
Greta Orehhova
“In recent years, I’ve been really involved with human rights, volunteering, youth work, and Erasmus+. Since 2022, I’ve also joined the EuroPeers network where my interest in journalism grew because I write about Erasmus+ experiences. When I have free time, I like to travel, learn about new cultures and people, spend time with those closest to me, and make someone smile every day.”
This article reflects the views of the authors only. The European Commission and Eurodesk cannot be held responsible for it.