This year, the World Village sustainable development festival is celebrating its 30th anniversary with the theme of Peace. Held in Suvilahti on 24–25 May, the festival will feature international and domestic concerts, speeches revolving around the theme of Peace, events for children, workshops, activities for young people, art and other experiences. As a main partner of the event, the City of Helsinki will hold speeches, run its own booth and organise events for children at the festival.
“The theme of this year’s World Village Festival, Peace, is very important for Helsinki, as we want to be a city where all lifestyles and opinions can co-exist peacefully. During the festival, the City will be presenting itself first and foremost as a city of reconciliation, inclusion and sustainable development, which is open, willing to listen and interactive,” says the City of Helsinki’s Participation Director Johanna Seppälä.
The speeches to be delivered at the festival will explore peace from multiple perspectives.
“Participants can look forward to an impressive line-up of speakers and speeches from both Finland and abroad. Many of the speakers possess personal experience of wars, conflicts and injustice. We want to call attention to voices that are rarely heard in public discussions. This year’s speeches promise to be deeply felt – peace is an acute and tangible theme all around the world in these uncertain times,” says the festival’s Programme Manager Johanna Eurakoski.
Young people as builders of peace and reconciliation
The violence and conflicts faced by young people are visible in both headlines and everyday life. At the same time, young people have plenty of ways of participating in and influencing the resolution of the conflicts in their own lives through peaceful means. The joint discussion between the City of Helsinki and Children of the Station at the festival will highlight some concrete accomplishments that have resulted from young people being provided with support and ownership for resolving the conflicts affecting them.
Hosted by Borough Liaison Gurmann Saini, the discussion will include concrete talk of what can be achieved when young people are provided with support and ownership for resolving the conflicts affecting them. Saini will interview Mediator Aydarus Ibrahim and Street Mediator Hanad Bulhan, both of whom have several years of experience in mediation work in Helsinki. Also participating in the discussion will be a 14-year-old young person from Helsinki, who will share their own story of peacebuilding in a challenging situation.
Cities for peace and a sustainable future
Cities are powerful contributors to the work for a peaceful and civilised future. They are increasingly playing a key role in the construction of international cooperation and security. Mayor of Helsinki Juhana Vartiainen, Mayor of Dnipro Borys Filatov and Ambassador of Ukraine to Finland Olga Dibrova will discuss the cooperation between Finnish and Ukrainian cities and how local action, such as cooperation between cities and school and youth exchanges, can have a global impact.
The panel discussion will be hosted by the City of Helsinki’s Senior Advisor for International Relations Outi Jäppinen. The City of Helsinki and its Ukrainian partner City of Dnipro will also organise a unique musical evening at Temppeliaukio Church on Friday 23 May at 19:00. The Sunflower Seeds of Hope concert will bring together the top musicians of the Four Seasons Chamber Orchestra, who play in different countries because of the war. The City of Dnipro will use the proceeds from the concert to help children studying music who have lost their loved ones in the war.
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Workshops, art and sports
In addition to speeches, the World Village festival will also feature a wealth of activities, such as art, sports, dance and workshops.
The City of Helsinki’s workshop tent will focus on sustainable living on Saturday and on Ukrainian culture on Sunday, when the tent will be visited by children from Helsinki’s partner city of Dnipro, who will be sharing their own traditions. The beloved litter-picking gulls Börje and Tuula will instruct children about littering and waste sorting. Children will also get to test their knowledge of the effects of litter on nature in Finnish, Swedish or English and take a photo with Börje or Tuula!
Children will also get to spin the wheel of fortune and answer questions related to sustainable living in Finnish and English. Potential prizes include sweets and lovely temporary tattoos with a gull or fox motif.
At the workshop tent, visitors can also receive bicycle tuning tips, exercise books on sustainable mobility in Finnish and everyday circular economy tips in Finnish, Swedish, English, Somali, Arabic and Russian.
And what is Fox doing at the festival? Find out when the Sustainable Future Fox visits the tent to delight children and adults during the workshop on Saturday 24 April at 12:30, 13:00 and 13:30.
On Sunday, visitors will get to delve into the culture and traditions of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. At the workshop, every visitor will get to make and try things and experience how traditions and creativity
come alive through handicrafts, as children from Dnipro share their own ”petrykivka” painting tradition with the children of Helsinki. In addition to this, visitors will get to craft Ukraine peace doves out of felt and bracelets in Ukrainian colours. The creative workshop offers opportunities to learn, make friends and enjoy fun activities together.
The workshop will be held in the Kids' Corner workshop tent in English, but you can participate even if you do not know English. The workshop is suitable for people of all ages.
