VINCE visit to Norrköping and Linköping, November 2023

In November 2023, the Finnish partners (Turku University of Applied Sciences, City of Turku and Sateenkaari Koto NGO) finally got to visit the partners in Sweden: Refugee Health Center and the County Administrative Board of Östergötland in Norrköping and Linköping.

The visit was filled with informative and eye-opening presentations of different warmhearted professionals working towards migrants’ integration in Östergötland. Djamal Hamaili shared inspirational stories about welcoming migrants in the rural municipality of Valdemarsvik and the importance of having a driving licence) and Miriam Zwörner told us about the operation model of Bilda Gårdshuset in Linköping.

Since Christmas was approaching, a lot of the informal discussion concentrated on the importance of Christmas traditions. The Finnish team got to taste lussebullar, julmust and juleskum, and learned that the cookie named “finska pinnar” actually is a Swedish invention and completely unknown to the Finnish speaking VINCE team. On the other hand, the Finnish tradition of serving “laatikot/lådor” during Christmas, was quite unknown to the Swedish team. However, we did find common ground in the gingerbread cookie, that is served in both Sweden and Finland.