Reflections from the intensive course

This weekend I got the chance to participate in Diaconia University's course on "Mental health and wellbeing - focus on homeless and underprivileged populations». I think this course made me more aware of some things, and especially the fact that we often tend to forget about this group of people. I think in our day-to-day life we often only see our own needs and forget to think about others.

During our study tour to Office of the church council, the second day of the course, we learned about the Finnish term "talko" which is an apt word for describing people in a community getting together to work for a common cause. In Norway a group of people organized themselves under the name "Refugees welcome to Norway". This is a group of volunteers that got together to help the refugees arriving from Syria.  This could be a good way to help refugees coming to Finland in the future.

I think these values, and community spirit, will become more and more important in the future, and that we need "talko" to make people feel included and as a start of integration.

Who am I? 

 

I am Andrea Tangen, a 22 year old Norwegian student, taking a bachelor's degree in nursing at VID Specialized University in Oslo, Norway.