I’m Amir and I’m joining the Mirsal office this year working on two different projects. UNMUTED is a global education project funded by Fingo’s CGC – Connect for Global change, planned and implemented together with Sumud ry – The Finnish Palestine Network. CELEBRATE is a Cultural Heritage project funded by The Finnish Heritage Agency, planned and implemented in cooperation with the Migration Institute of Finland.
UNMUTED is a joint project by Sumud – The Finnish Palestine Network and Mirsal. The project strengthens civic participation among under-represented young adults in Finland – especially among Arabic-speaking diaspora and other marginalized groups. Over one year, 24 participants learn how Finnish decision-making works and carry out their own advocacy action. action. The project operates trilingually in Finnish, Arabic and English. UNMUTED prioritizes young adults with fewer opportunities due to language, education, income, discrimination, or living outside the capital region.
CELEBRATE will establish a platform for the Finnish-Arabic community to preserve, transfer, and archive their culture for future generations. It seeks to empower the community to recognize their rich culture as part of the diverse cultures in Finland, support them in transmitting this heritage forward, and encourage them to take an active role in representing themselves in Finnish society. Incorporating Finnish-Arabic cultural heritage into Finnish cultural heritage collections will enrich understandings of Finnish cultural diversity.
Working alongside the Finnish-Arabic community, CELEBRATE will plan and implement a one- day event centered on a specific UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage theme, dancing and singing as a form of celebration. The heritage will be recorded in a workshop event, followed by interviews with participants and performers and archived to the Archive of the Migration Institute of Finland.
Contact me: amir.abdelamir@mirsal.fi