The recipients of the 2018 Integration Development Prizes were announced on the evening of Thursday 15 November. Four prizes valued at €1000 each were presented to the winners. The prizes are designed to recognise anyone – be they individuals or organisations – who has encouraged people from different ethnic backgrounds to do things together in the last year.
“A happy, friendly and cohesive society starts with caring people,” said Minister of Culture Indrek Saar. “In presenting these awards we’re recognising big-hearted people and pro-active organisations that have stood out for what they’ve done to bring people from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds closer together and to get them to understand one another better, and simply for their contribution to the community. I’ve no doubt their undertakings have made Estonia an even safer, friendlier and more unified home for everyone who lives here.”
- The prize for the promotion of the cultures of the national minorities living in Estonia to the Estonian public was presented to the Ida-Viru County Integration Centre for organising a conference, theme park, festival and publication showcasing the colourful and multifaceted cultural heritage of the county.
- The prize for fostering contact between people who speak Estonian and people who speak languages other than Estonian was awarded to the Sillamäe Society for Child Welfare and the NPO Eriline Maailm /Special World/.
Eriline Maailm organised the youth street dance festival ‘Nolimit Dance Battle’ with the aim of raising society’s awareness of people with special needs. A hundred youngsters between the ages of 10 and 26 from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Finland took part in the festival, which helped break down stereotypes and gave young people with special needs the chance to express themselves through dance in the same way as their peers.
The Sillamäe Society for Child Welfare involved youngsters from all over Estonia in the staging of a space- and science-themed musical entitled ‘Aelita 2.0 or See the Wonder in People’. The creative process behind the production included a concert and competitions to cast the musical and a series of discussions on the future of integration in Estonia. The participants discovered that in working together their nationalities and ethnic backgrounds proved unimportant: they formed a group of friends with a shared love of music and dance.
- The youth prize for contributing to the development of the field of integration or national minority culture was awarded to Anna Mironova, who was nominated by the ‘Vodograi’ Ukrainian community in Sillamäe for her contribution to the activities of the community and for getting young people involved.
A total of 25 nominations were received for the prizes.
The Integration Foundation has been awarding the Integration Development Prizes since 1999. The awarding of the prizes is supported by the Ministry of Culture.
