At first we had a very interesting concert in our school. An African musician gave us an excellent example of playing drums. He was very skilful and he told us about living in his own country Gambia and how he came to Finland and how he feels to live here. Every student in our school took part in this concert.

At Thursday in our school there were two women, Elviira Deniz and Shahnaz Mikkonen telling us what it is like to be a refugee. They told us their stories. Especially Elviira’s story was touching.

She was from Bosnia where she had a good childhood. She married and got a son. They had a house and Elviira was at work 8 years. But then the war came.

The village was totally emptied. Men who weren’t shot, were taken to prison camp, women to former schools which had been changed to reception centres. There were about eighty peoples in one classroom. Then the Red Cross came and took all the men who survived from prison camp and let them in to Croatia. From there they continued to countries which promised shelter to them.

Shahnaz told us how many things are going to change when someone comes to another country as a foreigner. She said that it takes even twenty years to learn a new culture. Now they both work at Toppelius – it is a kind of organisation working to help foreign people to get aquainted in Finnish culture.