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My Estramus Exchange at HAW Hamburg

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Time flies. When you're engrossed in something, time always seems to slip away. That was certainly the case during my exchange semester at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. One thing I'd like to remind everyone before you set off: keep a close eye on your belongings while travelling. I left my backpack behind on the train from Turku to Vantaa Airport, though thankfully it was recovered a fortnight later. Part I: Living When I arrived in Hamburg this March, the weather was bright and sunny. My buddy – part of a friendly support programme that pairs you with a HAW student to assist throughout your stay, from arrival to departure – told me how fortunate I was to encounter such fine weather compared to last year. My apartment was in the Almoor district, slightly removed from the main campus of HAW, though the convenient S2 takes me to all my planned destinations. Allerm รถ he  was a pleasant neighbourhood, surrounded by the Wetland Park and Almoor Lake, making it an excellent ...

Community Turn in My Life and My Thougt on Frontline Work

In Finland, I experienced the community turn in my daily life from various dimensions.  Last year, I had almost joined PAM (Trade Union of Service Industries) as I had a temporary job last year. This union shares critical information with me, organizes events, advocates multi assistance, collaboration and self-reliance to address workplace injustice, issues, protect employees’ rights and offers support to its members and anyone in need. They are shifting the official power forward to a specific group (community). Even though I am not a member of PAM, yet I think it is a great example of community turn. Another nearby example is the student union and various student clubs at Turku AMK. These organizations work to highlight underused or unidentified resources that promote self-help and social support, particularly for students. For instance, at the beginning of each academic year, they organize events and campaigns to introduce new students to basic but crucial information about stud...

Breif Review of Child Welfare Act and Process in Child Welfare Services

Finland should be one of the most child-friendly countries in the world. Compared with China, I must say that I have never acquired such comprehensive children protection and children welfare system for Chinese children.  In Flinland, the comprehensive children protection process is generally emplemented in this way: notice-assessment-investigation-service/care-after care. In what situation Child Welfare Notification(s) should be submitted? Two types of Child Welfare Notifications suit different stages and needs of children and their families in Finland. The first one, Anticipatory Child Welfare Notification , concerns the potential harm and risk that not happen immediately to the children, but some signs indicate that the potential crisis will occur.   For instance, a pregnant mother who frequently faces domestic violence. Although no harm has occured now, but the situation will affect the baby once born. In this situation, professionals must submit an Anticipatory Chil...

A Brief Thought on Participatory Methods in Forum Theatre

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There is no much infomation about FORUM THEATER in the slides. I didn't know what it is when I spotted it. I researched it online, and I found something that interests me. There is a slogan on the web page:  People working together around the world to generate ideas and action for social change . It intepretates the essential ideas and beliefs of Participatory Methods. Forum theater is one of them. The whole name of Augusto Boal's theater is Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) . There were three theatres alternate used:  Image Theatre, Forum Theatre and Legislative Theatre.  They were all using "as a tool to look critically at reality, and then to challenge and transform oppression together with communities." "Forum theatre mobilises the ‘spect-actors’ of a performance to move onto the stage and perform proposed solutions to an oppression portrayed in the play .  This process is curated by a ‘Joker’, who is a conduit between the audience and those onstage, who must fa...