Projects
Juminkeko Foundation carries out several projects
International projects often involve the cooperation with many parties.
Juminkeko Foundation maintain a close cooperation with the Karelian cultural authorities and the cultural communities operating in the Republic of Karelia.
The most ambitious international project undertaken by the Juminkeko Foundation in cooperation with the Arhippa Perttunen Foundation is a 30-year-long revival project aimed at rescuing the endangered White Karelian villages and their culture, making it available for the future generations.
The project was supported by several Finnish ministries, Finnish and foreign cultural foundations and funds as well as the Europian Union.
This project was begun in the early 1990s. In 1993, the project for the revitalization of the White Karelian villages was recognized by UNESCO as part of the World Decade for Cultural Development.
Another huge and significant project was the ECHO-project within the CBC Karelia-program of the European Union, this time in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Karelia. Its goal was to establish ethnocultural centres supporting the culture of the 18 indigenous peoples of Karelia. Those ethnocultural centres represent Karelians (Olonets, White Karelians and Luds), Vepsians, Pomors and the Russians from Äänisniemi.
The Foundation has participated in numerous projects for the development of alternative travel forms as well as the collection and preservation of indigenous cultures.
In cooperation with the Vietnamese Kalevala Friendship Society, the Juminkeko Foundation has supported the creation of a novel epic based on Vietnamese folk poems and the Kalevala constructing methods (2002-2008).
Juminkeko supports the translators and the illustrators of the Kalevala, providing them with information and material as well as arranging trips to the Land of the Kalevalian songs, that is to say the Karelia of the White Sea.
