Kulttuurikeskus Ninho ry (Ninho) works to develop a more multicultural and plurilingual children’s culture in Finland. Since 2016, we’ve been working to turn our mission into reality, thanks to the support of artists, families, institutions, associations, and lots of amazing volunteers.
If you’re new or unsure about how to lend your support, here are several ways!
By supporting our diverse projects, you contribute to developing a more diverse cultural sector for all children in Finland.
Because we do it together… Here’s how you can support Ninho!
1. Become a member
As a small association, the saying “the more the merrier” takes on added significance. Having more members means more voices to be heard. Thus, the larger our community, the easier it becomes to secure external support and sustain our mission.
We provide various membership options tailored to your profile, whether you’re a citizen, a representative of an organization, or a business owner.
Find more details by visiting our memberships page!
2. Participate in our open events
While our main project is children’s cultural festival Kolibrí Festivaali, there are so many other projects we are developing for families and professionals.
These are other current projects and events:
- Reading Together: storytelling sessions in Spanish (Leemos Juntos), Portuguese (Lemos Juntos) and other minority heritage languages in Finland.
- Lukupesä: a holistic program to support and develop plurilingual families’ reading practices in heritage languages and develop skills for reading mediation for professionals in culture and educational fields. This project also includes Learning Together, a series of seminars and workshops connected to reading practices and anti-racism in the cultural sector. Get to know Lukupesä here.
- PICNIC Art Family Encounters: regular meetings in minority heritage languages for families with babies or toddlers. The meetings serve as spaces for peer support, networking, and sharing nice time together. Remember you can create your PICNIC encounters in your heritage language with our support. Send us your thoughts at info@ninho.fi.
- Día de Muertos: Altar de Día de Muertos and Family Days are becoming a classic Ninho event! We commemorate this ancient Mexican and Central American tradition with lots of activities for the whole family.
- Children’s culture diversity network in Finland: a peer-to-peer informal network to connect actors working for a more diverse culture for children. Join the Network by filling out this FORM!
- Children’s culture diversity network in Finland: a peer-to-peer informal network to connect actors working for a more diverse culture for children. Join the Network at info@ninho.fi!
- Día de Muertos: Altar de Día de Muertos and Family Days are becoming a classic Ninho event! We commemorate this ancient Mexican and Central American tradition with lots of activities for the whole family.
3. Sponsor our open events and programs
Now that you know our projects better, remember you can sponsor them! You can also give financial support to different spaces in our open events, artists, or the projects we are developing.
Your business or organization will have a great impact since events like Kolibrí Festivaali are visited by more than 2000 people every year.
Contact us at info@ninho.fi
4. Become a volunteer to support Ninho
The most rewarding aspect of volunteering at Ninho is seeing the result of your efforts on happy children’s faces. Trust us; there’s no feeling quite like it. The great thing is that you have numerous opportunities to support Ninho as a volunteer and live that moment yourself!
- If you like events production: lots of our volunteers support our open events, such as Family Days, during the entire production process.
- If you are a photographer or want to give us a hand on communication, design, or our two websites.
- If you can translate into Swedish, Finnish, English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
- Most of our members or volunteers speak Spanish, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, and of course English, so you can also practice these languages while volunteering with us!
You can become a volunteer at volunteer@ninho.fi
5. Donate books for Ninho and Kolibrí Children’s Books Fair
Every year Kulttuurikeskus Ninho runs two main projects connected to children’s books that you can support by donating new or second-hand children’s books in Spanish and Portuguese:
- Bestowal Program for Strengthening the Collection of Children’s Literature in Spanish and Portuguese, at Helmet public libraries. You can support this project by giving up new children’s books in Spanish and Portuguese, so Helmet Libraries offer more titles for children.
- Children’s Book Fair: a second-hand market of children’s literature (some new books too), picture books, and reading material in Spanish and Portuguese. The fair is usually arranged in conjunction with Kolibri Festivaali and as pop-up events to raise funds for the association.
You can donate books by contacting us at info@ninho.fi and we’ll give you more info.
6. Share your knowledge and expertise with Ninho
We usually compound our different project programs by organizing first Open Calls. This is the way we ensure that newcomer professional artists can take part in Finnish children’s culture, by adding their voices and representation.
Stay tuned by following our social media, subscribing to our newsletter, or spreading the voice.
Also, if you are part of an association or institution and you think we can collaborate, what are you waiting for! You can contact our Head of Production at laura.gazzotti@ninho.fi
7. Buy some Ninho merchandise
Kolibrí Festivaali has had every year many illustrators as Guest Artists, such as Paloma Valdivia, Isidro Ferrer, or Yara Kono. These talented artists have donated some beautiful artwork to the association, so we can raise more money to keep working.
Don’t miss our online shop and check them out! They’ll be amazing gifts for your friends, family and yourself.
And if you’re an artist and you want to donate your work to Ninho, just send us an email!
8. Spread the voice
As you know social media is a powerful tool to spread the voice, but traditional word-of-mouth works too! You’ll be helping us already if you talk about us to people who can join us, or share our events on your social media channels. It’s easy, and fast, and you’ll make a difference too.
We hope that you have now lots of ideas to support Ninho! Last one? 😉 Subscribe to our newsletter!