Happiness is hidden in simple things.

Happiness is hidden

 in simple things. 

Together with a group of amazing people from the diplomatic missions of Latvia, France, Moldova to Estonia and other participants, we had the opportunity to visit two social centers, one for people with Dawn-Syndrome and a daily social center  for children from difficult families. Both social centers are located in two small towns of Estonia, located in 50 km distance from Tallinn. 

Our first visit was in Social Center from the village Pahkla, called ,,Kula Camphili", which is an organized according to the international social movement of care for people with Syndrome - Down . From the beginning we were impressed by the how the daily life is organized there, that everybody has its own duty and work inside the house and outside in the garden, based on the model normal families. All this houses are kept and runned by the people employed there in the role of parents, who take care of all people with special needs and give them the opportunity to feel important there. 

      A daily work occurs also in their small animal farm, where they care for 15 cows and other animals. Most impressive is that this is almost autonomous social center, they can cover their needs by doing their work in the farm, garden and workshop. At the same time, they run a workshop for candles and a sewing workshop where they do beautiful small carpets. They usually organize their duties normally just like a big family. Each person is fulfilling its tasks according to their schedules, this helps them a lot and they learn to be responsible, to feel important to their community and family life. Work has a special appearance, they are not forced to do anything, but they are told that they can get through their activity or work. All their work is organized by the principle ,,learn by doing”, this gives them the incentive to work hard and to learn in the process they fulfil their job.

     The surprise for all of us was their interest and love for the music. We have been told that they visited an instrumental concert, and after that they were so impressed that they asked to be learned how to interpret that songs. And we truly had the opportunity to be welcomed by their small concert. Frankly speaking, I was impressed, because even for an ordinary person it would be hard to interpret classic songs of famous composers, ones that have been chosen by them, but they did it almost perfectly and with great dedication.

Our second destination was the Rapla city where we visited a Daily Social Center for small children from families with social problems, some children are from families where parents are unable to provide the necessary care for them. Here we met the leader of this social center, Ms.Siri, which is one of the famous Estonian singers, who decided at some point of her life that she has to help these children in need, and devoted herself to this social cause. Here we met some young girls who were doing some daily activities in the center. They were surprised to see us and some were shy, but later on they were very friendly and joined our company. We got to know one of them which was nearby Ms.Siri during all this time, as she loves her very much, this is due to her own family problems and lack of peace and love there.

     This social center does not receive any help from the state budget, but it managed to be running on the principle of self-supporting. It’s amazing how they done it, by mobilizing their efforts and with all the goods from donations of used items (clothes, toys, books, household items) they collected them and put them to the auction off in their own shop. Money collected from this activity are only enough to pay rent, salaries of teachers dealing with these children, and utilities. This is truly not enough to run this social center, but Ms.Siri is happy that she can give a little help to these children who have the opportunity to feel protected from everyday problems experienced by their families.

These social centers are trying to give these people a chance to fit in society, to feel important to their own community. Through education and daily activities there is a chance to give them confidence in their future. All these efforts are made ​​through those special people who take care of them, we can say that they are the people with big hearts and a treasure for this society.

   Today was a lesson for me personally, that sometimes we have everything but appreciate nothing and happiness hidden in simple things.