This year the European Network of Journalists-Finland organized its traditional
Summer Party as a casual Summer Picnic. The venue took place in Kaivopuisto,
Helsinki’s most reputed park, during a glorious sunny evening.
Despite that, during summer like this one, most Helsinki people will leave the city
toward summer cottages; our venue gathered around 25 people between members
and special guests. The Association displayed a lovely white tent, and the venue had a
piece of nice music as an acoustic background. These elements were completed with
tasty international catering.
“We have been affected by Covid-19, which has reduced our activities to a minimum.
But we hope that soon the pandemic will be over, we could once again work as a
professional association and interact with the Finnish society,” said the Association’s
President Amir Kathib in his opening speech.
Sometime after the opening, an international telephone call came in. It was from Saia
Tsaousidou, the International President of the Association of European Journalists, AEJ, our umbrella organization. This year the AEJ is organizing its annual Congress in
Greece. Our Association will send two delegates to that Congress.
Amazing Performances, Music and Dance
The artistic part of the venue started with the excellent performance of Ike Ude Chime,
a board member of the Association. He played a traditional African instrument,
Kalimba, and gifted the presents with a song in Gbo, one of the main languages of
Nigeria. As the atmosphere was very relaxed, one of our members, Bilal Dalkilic, took a
drum of Ike and played a melody from Kurdistan.
The special guest was Paula, a young Mexican student of the University of Arts in
Helsinki. She danced the typical Middle-East dance, the belly-dance, displaying great
sympathy. Then it was the turn of Daniela, also a young student of the University of
Arts. She is from Ecuador and played us tenders melody with her Jarana, a small guitar-
like instrument with eight strings.
The atmosphere was in crescendo and ended naturally, dancing in the grass just when
the moon started to rise in the sky. The venue shows that a return to social life is
possible.
Text by Adrián Soto, image by Adrián Soto and Nurer Zaman Bhuiyan.