Estonian Refugee Council helps arriving refugees to find suitable Estonian language courses to support their adaptation to the new environment. Recently, Nour from Iraq and Sumeyra from Turkey, both living with their families in Tartu, passed the Estonian language proficiency test. The women talked about why learning Estonian is important to them.

Madle Timm

The global coronavirus crisis is hitting those who are already in a bad state the hardest - the demand for humanitarian aid is growing. More than 10 years have passed since the last refugee crisis in Georgia, but serious socio-economic problems have not disappeared. Unemployment, depression, and reduced food security are just some of them. This year, the Estonian Refugee Council (ERC) started supporting internally displaced Georgian women so that they could start their own sustainable businesses.

Madle Timm

Those, who had already difficulties before, have took the hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic- the demand for humanitarian aid is growing faster than ever. Estonian Refugee Council (ERC) has helped the people of Ukraine, who have suffered because of the war for more than seven years according to how the conflict and people’s needs have changed. They have supplied people with food, medicine, sanitary packages and school supplies. Also, the most vulnerable households get financial help to survive the winter.

Hille Hanso 

Photo: Shutterstock - Homs

Since 2015, Estonia has offered foreigners who have arrived here an adaptation program in English and Russian to help them settle in and adapt more easily. However, during these six years, beneficiaries of international protection have been offered a special module, possibly in their mother tongue.

Over the years, the module has grown: at a start the training lasted only one day, but as of today it is five days long.

In 2021, Estonian Refugee Council will continue to advise and train specialists working with children to ensure that children with a migratory background find themselves in an environment that supports different cultures when they arrive in Estonia. Up to ten kindergarten groups will be counselled for this purpose and several trainings are planned.

In this spring, Estonian Refugee Council will start a series of round table discussions, targeted for municipal specialists. Also, activities of social enterprise Siin & Sääl will be expanded. Refugees and people with migrant background themselves, will take the lead in many activities. The main purpose is to increase reception and positive image of the people from different cultural space, and to alleviate fear, stereotypes and prejudices related to them.

The Babylonian confusion over the coronavirus vaccination has long defined the Middle East, where many fragile states struggle, writes Hille Hanso, Estonian Refugee Council’s humanitarian aid coordinator. COVID-19 has restrained the implementation of the Estonian Refugee Council's humanitarian aid programs in Lebanon and Jordan for almost a year. While even the economically stable European countries struggle with vaccinations, immunization in the middle- and lower-income countries in the region is further restricted by several factors alien to Western states.

Most Estonian citizens have felt helplessness, uncertainty and loneliness due to the coronavirus pandemic. Refugees are feeling similar way daily and in today’s global crisis, those feelings have multiplied. Estonian Refugee Council recently presented a leaflet, with information around mental health issues - how to identify the problems and how to help yourself and others at this difficult time.

Balqees Alaarag, a 23-year-old assistant in Jordanian branch of the Estonian Refugee Council, talks about what changed in her life when hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees arrived to Jordan. She also discusses about women's rights and the importance of education. "The most beautiful thing about Syria is the simplicity of the people and how kind they are to the guests," says Balqees. Interviewed by Hille Hanso, Estonian Refugee Council’s humanitarian aid coordinator.