The Danish Anna Lindh Network was glad to host colleagues from the ALF Network in Estonia. Composed of 4 persons representing 4 network members of ALF Estonia, the colleagues visited Copenhagen on 13-16 September 2023.
The purpose of the visit was to share experience and good practice. The preparation for this visit took place online through three online meetings according to the wishes of the Estonian colleagues as to the Danish members they would like to meet. On that basis, we implemented the following programme:
On 14 September in the morning, the guests visited and had exchange with Jambatan’s (Bridge in Malay) leader Amir Amir Szainorin. Amir shared with them about Jambatan’s annual festival Stateless Mind. Stateless Mind is an interdisciplinary artist platform founded by the association Jambatan. The first Festival was held in Copenhagen in 2019 and has since become an annual event with a growing interest and larger participation from both artists and audiences. The guests were very happy to visit Jambatan and hear about its work.
In the evening, the gusts joined the Food for Thought storytelling event with Nobel Laurate Morten Meldal who talked about his journey in chemistry studies and research to winning the Nobel Prize. His message was that Chemistry is everything and thus we could use it to tackle many of the current global challenges the world is facing. The event was attended by some 70 people from over 40 countries. It was spiced up with dinner prepared by Syrian immigrant women. The following day, the Estonian guests shared that they left the event feeling happy and optimistic.
The following day on 15 September, we had two items on the program. The first took place in the worming at Crossing Borders during which the partners shared information about their respective organisations and their works. Then we had Jakob Erle from the International Academy for Education and Democracy. Jakob shared about the history and activities of the academy and its link with UNESCO and work on the UN Global Goals as well as his experience as nonformal educator and former director of the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute in Cairo.
In the afternoon, the group headed to Pen International office in Copenhagen. The Estonian colleagues were welcomed by the Pen Denmark leader Mille Rode. After a round of presentations of the members, Mille told us about the work they do to support writers to carry out their important work. According to her, the work to protect and support writers has become more urgent in tandem with the shrinking of freedom of expression across the world including Denmark.
The program of the day concluded with a visit to Fristaden Christiania, a former military base turned community and commune at the heart of Copenhagen.
