Students take action to break the ice with asylum seekers

The difficult situation around crisis with refugees and asylum seekers in European Union is well known. Some people consider that Middle East refugees will bring distress with environmental destruction.

Students in Lapland University of Applied Sciences think differently. Instead of being judgmental they want to be proactive. Samir Younes, together with fellow students from Innovative Business Services and International Business degree programmes, kicked off a project called Breaking the Ice. The project aim is to break the negative thinking into a positive direction and it works in close in cooperation with the student union ROTKO and Innobarentslab.

On Friday 25 September the project invited people from Iraq and Syria, who just recently left their homes behind and arrived in Finland, to visit Lapland University in Rovaniemi.

- We are responsible all together for building jointly safe and good life in our Rovaniemi city and therefore we like to take an action, instead of being judgmental, we tend to be proactive, says Anzelika Krastina, a lecturer and project manager in Lapland UAS.

The event turned into very lively discussion with a lot of laughter and fun and it demonstrated the importance of a dialog as a solution to several concerns. According to Anzelika Krastina, Breaking the Ice project will continue by sharing, educating and discussing.