We were in the Heikinharju Refugee centre on Wednesday. We arrived a little bit late, because our laser fight took longer than we thought… The director of the house, Veikko Nevatalo, was waiting for us at the door. He welcomed us and took us to conference room.

 

In the conference room Veikko gave a lesson of what it is like to be an asylum seeker in Finland. He also told about the history of the building and its accommodation capacity. After the lesson we went to see the children who live in the centre, and we were introduced to an another leader, Jaana Karhu. We were divided into two groups. The other group went with the younger children and the other one with the older.

The older children’s group, and we went to make hats. Everyone was told to make a hat, that is like its owner. We saw many kind of hats. For example two of our girls made very nice "pig-hats" (which were exactly like their owners).

Then we went to see the flats of the asylum seekers. They were very small and simple ones. The kitchen, and the washrooms were in common use.

We left the place with a smile. The experience was marvellous, and we hope that we’ll see the children again as soon as possible.

Here we are carefully listening the director of the asylum centre Veikko Nevatalo

 Making hats was a funny thing. In the beginning boys were a little bit shy.