Christmas month and the ending of the year also marked the end of discussion group gatherings taking place since April in Rakvere, Estonia. Pille Murrik, lecturer at Tallinn University Rakvere College, psychotherapist and trainer in Gordon Family School, summed up the meetings.
„A man is a social being and needs to communicate with others. The discussion group evenings offered an opportunity to share both own experiences as well as listen to others’. The participants appreciated the possibility of being able to come out of their everyday routine, take their children with them and meet others while their children were taken care of and offered fun activities. A one of children explained: „While Moms have a discussion group evening, we kids have a fun evening!“ It is tiresome to bear the responsibility and the role of the parent alone while the significant other is away and working abroad. We discussed the factors laying behind the decisions for work migration; which difficulties could have been dealt with beforehand and which factors were totally unexpected. It was especially important for those who have yet to consent their husband’s working abroad. We focused on communication issues with both children and husbands and according to the feedback from the participants, the conversations helped to acknowledge the needs of their own as well as the needs of family members; diminish the probability for usual communication failures and learn to acknowledge and understand different situations also from the point of view of husband and children. The participants are consciously working on their relationship (i.e. listening to the partner, giving positive feedback, taking time as a couple etc). It was delightful to see how open and active the participants were.” The feedback was very positive. „I see a much bigger picture now “, one of the participants said. Also, the women attending the discussion group expressed their wish for the evenings to continue in order for them to share their experiences and find support. Two guests took part in the last discussion group evening. Keiu Telve and Pihla Maria Siim from Tartu University have done research on families with one member working abroad. They have focused on the living arrangements of such families in the context of Estonia and Finland and the impact of such arrangements on the family members. The guests gave an overview of their research and shared their experiences. Keiu Telve concentrated on the point of view of men by using the example of Estonian men working in Finland. Pihla Maria Siim gave an overview on how such living arrangement impact children’s lives and wellbeing.
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The second part of REGI training program for social work professionals hosted three guests from Foreign Benefits Department of Social Insurance Board. Experts Merle Trufanova and Ene Tiitsaar and Advisor Kadri Tomingas explained the principles of social insurance coordination and benefit payment rules based on the examples of cases in Finland.
Merle Trufanova: “My area of expertise is determining the country of insurance for people who work in other European Union countries or elsewhere. Therefore we are very closely connected to the families where one of the family members is working abroad and we see their problems daily. People who move to another country or start working abroad should always learn what their rights but also obligations are arising from this change. I also encourage social workers to advise people to turn to institutions where people can get relevant assistance. Social Insurance Board is certainly one of such institutions in Estonia where you can get help regarding family benefits or pensions.” Ene Tiitsaar gave a closer overview of the rules of family benefits in European Union and also informed of what is necessary to know when you start working abroad. Kadri Tomingas explained why it is important to be aware of determination of insurance country, and defining and paying procedures of cross-border family benefits and pensions. „More and more families are divided between several European Union countries because of their jobs. Moreover, our pensioners have become more mobile and therefore the topic is very much of current interest. Thus it is extremely important for people and social work professionals to know their rights and obligations. It is important that people get the benefits and subsidies that they are entitled to either here in Estonia or in any other country where they have worked or lived earlier“. The feedback from the social work professionals participating in the training was very positive. The specialists agreed that the topic handled during the day helps them to understand the social insurance issues even more profoundly. Practical examples offered during the training were appreciated by the participants. „Cross-border cases are becoming more and more common and it is important to know the differences of subsidies and benefit payment systems in Finland and Estonia“, one of the professionals said when summarizing the training day. Estonian centre in Turku has been busy during the whole autumn with all kinds of events, but now is the time to take a few deep breaths and give short overview what has been done. Our popular informational evenings started in September covering topics like why belong to a trade union, who is the Finnish educational system built and why to educate oneself as an adult and how Estonians are living and coping in Finland. In September Vanemuise theatre from Tartu, Estonia gave a guest performance playing a popular children’s musical “Sööbik ja Pisik” by Urmas Sisask based on Thorbjørn Egneri’s book “Karius and Bactus”. It was a great success, attracting over 400 kids during two performances, who took a lot of pictures with actors and got another chance to be connected with culture in Estonia. For adults a dinner-meeting was organized together with the actors. In November a familiar friend from Estonia, Miks-theatre paid a visit to Turku performing a play called “How does he do it?” about being an actor. Performance was the highlight of a long and eventful family day completed with a lecture for adults. The undisputed highlight of the autumn was an acoustic concert by Getter Jaani, probably the most famous young female singer in Estonia. We also promoted project REGI at an event called “Mahdollisuuksien tori” (A Marketplace of Opportunities), at the Turku international book fair and to a delegation from Tartu lead by mayor Urmas Klaas. Photos (by Kirsi Äyräs): A change to meet a real Pop Star! Getter Jaani and the kids before the concert at Turku. How to be an actor? Miks-theater gave some hands on tips! Vanemuise´s musical gathered over 400 visitors. Vanemuise´s artists Rasmus Kull and Simo Breede at the stage as Sööbik and Pisik. The children´s musical by Urmas Sisask is based on Thorbjørn Egneri’s book “Karius and Bactus” Regi info evening: social worker Anneli Tamme talking about her survey on Estonians in Finland. REGI training programm was launched on the 21st of November 2016. Heivi Mäekivi, a psychologist in Rakvere Social Centre and municipal schools, focused on the topic important to the professionals working in the community – „The Early Noticing of Problems Arising among the Children Living in Transnational Families“.
Intensive training day was filled with both theoretical knowledge as well as practical activities. „My message today to you is that it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye“, Heivi Mäekivi said. „When the family is due to the work-related reasons, a lot of problems, not known in families with both parents present, may arise. In such cases, quite often there is a deficit of resources in the family. When the parent lacks resources, the child will most probably lack them as well and that will be revealed in the behaviour of the child.“ Heivi Mäekivi gave an overview to the professionals on what is a well-functioning family; which development phases take place with a family life when one of the parents starts working abroad. The group learned how to recognize risk signs in child’s behaviour. “The goal is that the professionals working with children or the family would learn to understand and not to condemn. When they understand in which phase the family finds itself, they will understand which resources they lack and can actually offer the help that is needed“ Mäekivi said concluding the training day. The feedback of 17 professionals participating in the training day was very positive. Almost every specialist faces the issues that the REGI project focuses on, i.e. the problems resulting from the work-related migration, the prevention and the prossibility of finding solution to such problems. The acquired knowledge can successfully be implemented in everyday work and the transnational families can get the support they need. If one or both parents of the family moving to another country is a major change. In order to cope and adapt with a change of this scale, one needs an effective support network. There is a need to raise awareness and train professionals to notice and handle the problems emerging when parent(s) or the whole family moves abroad. Mostly Estonians move to Finland for work-related reasons. Rapid changes have caused challenges for people and social systems both in Finland and in Estonia. The goal of the REGI-project is to give a contribution in solving problems and challenges related to work migration. Social work professionals and pedagogues will be trained to notice challenges related to work migration before they grow to be problems. As a research was conducted among school personnel and as well as the social workers of the West-Viru county, the input gathered from them had an utmost importance for compilation of the training programmes. Training course for professionals Starts in November 2016 and consists of 5 training days:
International REGI project seminar ”Employment related migration – challenges for family life on both sides of the Finnish Bay” took place on October 13th 2016 at Rakvere Smart House Competence Centre. Summary of the seminar by Turku AMK students Take a look at the photo gallery here REGI week begins on October 11th with the third discussion evening for the target group, i.e. for family members living in Estonia while their significant others have moved to Finland to work. The discussion group evenings, with the cover title „I love you from far away“, are organized as part of the REGI project activities in Estonia. The gathering will be led by Pille Murrik, who is a lecturer at Tallinn University Rakvere College, psychotherapist and trainer in Gordon Family school. The main issues in this time are: how to maintain the relationship by Skype and which are the smart solutions families have used. REGI week continues with the international project seminar ”Employment related migration – challenges for family life on both sides of the Finnish Bay”, which will be held on October 13th 2016 at 10am at Rakvere Smart House Competence Centre. The aim of the seminar is to give an overview of the REGI project, its activities and goals. And to raise awareness of the issue, which affects the life of many families. Lot of Finnish partners will participate and we have a good possibility to learn from professionals and experts who are working with the issue. The seminar is targeted mainly to social work professionals and pedagogues of West-Viru County. Agenda of the seminar can be found here. REGI has started the autumn! During the autumn the project will for example conduct trainings for professionals in order to increase the understanding and noticing of the circumstances and challenges of the work-related Estonian migrants in both countries. Tallinn University Rakvere College will keep a training which consists of five different modules with important themes such as Finnish education system and concerns related to comeback and re-acclimatization to Estonia. Finnish partners will execute pop-up trainings for different groups of professionals. Volunteers are an important resource for associations and for the project as well. During the summer REGI project partner South-West Finland´s Estonian Centre has had “development discussions” with their volunteers. They also made a short video about the voluntary work with Estonians and it can be found here:
In this spring Tallinn University Rakvere College organized two thematic discussion evenings for the target group, i.e. for family members living in Estonia while their significant others have moved to Finland to work. The discussion group evenings, with the cover title „I love you from far away“, were organized as part of the REGI project activities.
The first meeting took place on April 26th and the second one on May 23rd. Both gatherings were led by Pille Murrik, who is a lecturer at Tallinn University Rakvere College, psychotherapist and trainer in Gordon Family school. All the participants were mothers with quite young children. The topics that were focused on during the meetings were following:
Also the feedback was asked from the participants. As a whole, all of them were satisfied with the possibility to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences with ohter persons, who are confronting with the same problems. Next meetings will be held in the autumn. |