Family meeting in Turku, Finland 2011
The 15th FEPEDA Family Meeting was held in Turku, Finland from 2nd August till 7th August 2011. All together over 250 participants – including all volunteers – from 13 European countries spent a sunny camp week in Finland. The youngest participant was only three months old!
The patron of the family meeting was the President of the Republic of Finland Tarja Halonen.
The main theme of the week was ‘What is it like to be a hearing impaired child or young person in Europe 2011?’ Program for adults contained interesting lectures and thematic workshops related to this theme. On the official seminar day 4th August, 2011 the Finnish deaf and hard of hearing children and young people had an opportunity to tell their own experiences. On the official seminar day we had also an interesting lecture “An international review on Deaf Education” given by Mr. Bernad Daly.
For children and young people the camp offered plenty of activities (sailing, glow bowling and glow golf, downhill car driving, indoor climbing etc.) arranged at or near the meeting venue. Children were divided into five different groups according to their age. During the camp week children and young people had a great possibility to get new friends.
At evenings there was arranged program for the whole family. On Wednesday evening we enjoyed the concert of the famous Finnish rap-artist Signmark. On Thursday the participants had the possibility to experience the Finnish sauna culture. On Friday we had a talent evening and on Saturday we had a great fare well evening.
During the camp week FEPEdA also had its official meetings – two Management meetings and the General Assembly. At the General Assembly some new members were elected: Eva Sichrová from Czech Republic, Sonia Zamora from Spain and Sari Paloposki from Finland start their work as new Management Committee members. Walter Lang from Austria, André Cuenca from France and Silvana Baroni from Italy were all re-elected to the Management Committee. At the second Management Committee meeting the members elected the new Bureau: Bernard Daly was unanimously elected as new President of FEPEDA which means that the presidency is now officially moved to Ireland for the next three years. Eeva Tikka was thanked for her great work as former President of FEPEDA. Sonia Zamora from Spain was elected as Secretary General and Guus Coenen from the Netherlands continues as Treasurer. Walter Letzel from Germany and Sari Paloposki from Finland were elected as Vice Presidents. Sari also continues her work as a Secretary which means that for the time being the Secretariat of FEPEDA remains in Finland.
With these elections some very active members of FEPEDA: Eeva Tikka, Lena Fernström, Isabel de Rojas and Martin Pangác all retired. On behalf of all FEPEDA members we thank them for the great involvement and active participation during the past years.
Please find photos under “Gallery”