Oulu loves me
The national Week Against Racism takes place in Finland on week 12 (March 17th. 23rd.) because the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is on March 21st.
A variety of activities will be organized in Oulu during the week. The events will especially discuss respecting other people and intervening in racism. All events will be compiled on this site. The materials of the week will be published on Feb. 26th
Events of Anti-Racism Week
THL Online course on anti-racism for professionals
Online course on anti-racism for professionals – knowledge, expertise, and emotion offers a comprehensive high-quality information package for work against racism. The themes of the course are focused on racism and its various forms in the Finnish society. The goal is to reduce ethnic discrimination and structural racism by providing professionals and students with information on anti-racist work.
This course is especially designed for professionals and students in the fields of health care and social services, education, and safety. However, the course is useful for anyone looking to foster a more equal and non-discriminatory approach to their work.
The course is free and you can use our material as part of your own course material.
SPR Identify and Act navigator
Identify and Act navigator – test out how you would act
How would you feel if someone you did not know were to yell at you and your young child in a shopping centre? Or if you constantly had to explain why you look the way you do?
How would you want others to act in these situations?
Using the Identify and Act navigator, you can test out how you would act in these scenarios. The guiding examples are real experiences of racism.
Readig Diploma City of Oulu & International children's digital library
Videos about racism
Would you erase racism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSs8m7KPqJA
Love has no labes (3:18)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnDgZuGIhHs
Why do we need to tackle hate speech? (4:07)
What would the world look like without hate? (1:13)
What is Hatespeech? (2:28)
SELMA Toolkit
The SELMA Toolkit - SELMA (Social and Emotional Learning for Mutual Awareness) project
In this learning environment, you can learn and study, among other things, hate speech in the online environment, how to react and react to it.
https://hackinghate.eu/toolkit/
We can!
Taking action against hate speech through counter and alternative narratives
https://rm.coe.int/wecan-eng-final-23052017-web/168071ba08
Week schedule
Saturday 15.3. at 13.00 -16.00 EN/FI
Oulu Loves Me
The "Oulu loves me" event offers you an international array of sights, sounds, and experiences at Valkea on Saturday, March 15th, from 1 PM to 4 PM. On the Valkea stage, you can see and hear a Ukrainian choir, Chilean dance, and Iranian music between 1 PM and 2 PM. The event continues in Valkea's youth corner from 2 PM to 4 PM, where you can participate in Thai flower crafting or a Vietnamese workshop. Coffee and tea will be available from 2 PM to 4 PM. The event kicks off the Week against racism 2025 in Oulu, with the theme: Adults' responsibility to address racism faced by children and youth. Welcome!
Place: Mall Valkea stage at 13-14 and Valkea's Young's Corner at 14-16
Organizers: Youth Services Oulu and Multicultural Centre Villa Victor
Monday 17.3. at 10.00 - 12.00
Easy patching, pretty stiches
Welcome to embroider a small brooch. The inspiration rises from the easy stitches of Japanese "boro" embroidery and from the colorful threads and fabrics we will use as material.
Place: Oulu10, Torikatu 10
Organizer: Villa Victor
Monday 17.3. at 13.00 - 16.00 FI
Romano Café
Theme: Rasism in everyday life
Place. Oulu10, Torikatu 10
Organizers: Romanomissio and Villa Victor
Monday 17.3. at 17.00 - 20.00 EN
IH Oulu's Networking and BoardGame Event
IH Oulu's Networking and Board Game Event is a monthly event where you can hear interesting information on various topics and, as the name suggests, play games and network. During the Week against Racism, Priyanka Sood from the City of Oulu will be holding a presentation about the City of Oulu's anti-racism program.
Place: Technopolis, Sepänkatu 20
Organizer: International House Oulu
Monday 17.3. at 17.00
Irish St. Patrick's Day
in St. Michael Irish pub, we play live traditional Irish music and everyone from everywhere is welcome.Additionally, 17.3. is St. Patrick’s Day, where the world comes together to celebrate the spirit of the Irish holiday.
Organizer: The Irish Festival of Oulu, Tell me Oulu! Finland - European Solidarity Corps
Tuesday 18.3. at 15.00 -16.30 Storytelling Club
Theme: Meeting different cultures
Place: Oulu10
Organizer: The Irish Festival of Oulu, Tell me Oulu! Finland - European Solidarity Corps
Wednesday 19.3. at 10.00 - 14.00
Easy patching, pretty stiches
Welcome to mend and embroider together and become inspired by Japanese "boro" embroidery. Come and try easy stitches on fabric bags or patches. You can also bring your own garment to mend or a thin fabric bag to embroider.
Place: Oulu10, Torikatu 10
Organizer: Villa Victor
Wednesday 19.3. at 16.00 - 17.30
Visiting Author Merim Al Kharsani
Author, teacher, interpreter Merim Al-Kharsani and post-doctoral researcher Outo Kähäri invite all people in Oulu to join them in discussion about stories in antiracist work. Merim introduces her recently published book: "Tarvitsen vain sylin", but the event is an interactive discussion with Merim, Outi and those participating the event. The Pekuri Library will also arrange a pop-up library at the event. Welcome!
Place: Valve, Cafe Paljetti
Organizer: Mobile Futures, University of Oulu, Library Pekuri
Wednesday 19.3. at 12.00-14.00
Coffee Club EN/FI
During the week against racism we will talk about racism at the Villa Victor Coffee Club. What is racism? In what ways is it portrayed in Oulu? What can we all do to combat racism? Together we will create a piece of antiracist artwork. The artwork will invite everyone to share their antiracist message. Tea and coffee is served at the Coffee Club. We mostly speak Finnish and English, but welcome you to communicate with other languages too!Visiting Author Merim Al-Kharsani: Stories in combatting racism and making it visible
Wednesday 18.3. African evening at 18.00-20.00
Topic: Benin and Congo. The event is free and there will be refreshments.
Place: SPR Oulun osasto, Kainuuntie 1
Thursday 20.3. at 16.00 - 17.30
Cultural-climate change dialogue
The Anti-Racism Week will be celebrated from 17 to 23 March 2025. The campaign week encourages us to recognise racism and take action against it. By tackling racism, we show that we care. Art and culture have the power to influence social change. The Equal Oulu2026 project invites cultural organisations to discuss how we can concretely make Cultural Climate Change, address racism and strengthen an anti-racist approach as part of the activities of a cultural organisation. The dialogue will be held on Thursday 20 March from 9 am to 12 am Oulu at Cultural Foundation, Showroom, Torikatu 18 Register for the event by Monday 17 March via the Lyyti service. There is room for 15 participants. Further information: Equal Oulu 2026 project manager Anna Litewka-Anttolainen, tel. 040 538 812, anna.litewka-anttolainen@oulu2026.eu
Thursday 20.3.
Dialogue between young people and decision-makers in the city of Oulu: anti-racism programme. As part of the launch of the city of Oulu's anti-racism programme, we organize a dialogue between young people and decision-makers. The aim of the dialogue is to discuss the city Oulu's anti-racism programme and hear young people’s thoughts, suggestions and expectations regarding the anti-racism work model. The purpose of the city of Oulu's anti-racism programme is to identify, prevent and combat racism in all its forms, support victims of racism and increase interaction and trust between different population groups in Oulu. The discussion itself is a closed event, but we will share the ideas and suggestions that emerged during the discussion in the media after the event. The event is organized by the Advisory Board for Ethnic Relations (ETNO) in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice, the city of Oulu, the Dialogue Academy, the ELY Centre for North Ostrobothnia and the Peace Education Institute.
Friday 21.3. at 10.00 - 12.00
Easy patching, pretty stiches
Welcome to mend and embroider together! Get inspired by Japanese "boro" embroidery. You can try embroidering on patches, make a brooch or continue the work you started on previous workshops.
Place: Oulu10, Torikatu 10
Organizer: Villa Victor
Friday 21.3. at 17-20
Red Cross cafe
Place: Red Cross Kainuuntie 1
Organizer: Red Cross Oulu department
Friday 21.3. at 18.00
Vietnamese culture on display
Place: St. Luke's Guesthouse, Erkki Koiso-Kanttilan katu 7
Organizer: Parishof Tuira
Friday 21.3.at 20.00 - 23.00 EN/FI
Hang Out Lounge
Place: Valkea's Young's Corner
Organizers: City of Oulu, Rauhankasvatusinstituutti and ODL
11.3.-24.3. Youth against Racism: Voices for Change
Students and researchers brainstorm digital tools against racism
Place: Valve
Organizer: University of Oulu, INTERACT Research Unit
17.3.- 21.3. Friendship across borders exhibition
Place: Vuolle house, round floor exhibition wall, Pikku- Iikan katu 6
Organizer: Vuolle Setlementti
17.3.-21.3. Open Doors at 14.00 - 18.00
Coffee/ tea and Eguality Game
Place: Startup Rafugees, Saaristonkatu 23-25, Oulu
Commitment against racism
We declare ourselves as a racism-free shop/school/organization…
We welcome everyone regardless of skin color, sexual orientation, gender, religion, age or origin.
We act if we notice racist or discriminatory behavior in our premises or services.
In addition, we follow the principles of anti-racism and non-discrimination in our recruitment processes and assign a harassment contact person in our work community.
We pledge to review the Identify and Act navigatorof the Finnish Red Cross with the staff.
We continue to develop our services so that they are accessible to everyone.
Feedback form
We wish to receive feedback from the events of the Weeks against racism. The data collected will be used in Jarkko Kinnunen's thesis. Answering is anonymous. We thank you for your participation!
https://forms.office.com/e/pDXtR2zPY2
The Challenge Campaign
Instructions for the Challenge Campaign
When your company/school/association wants to join: Fill out the MS Forms registration form. [Forms] and we will update your organization name on the Oulu loves me website.
3. Print the attached A4-sized poster and place it in a visible location. [We welcome everyone]
4. Make a social media post with the attached image. [We welcome everyone]
5. Agree on a time internally to go through the Red Cross navigator. [Red Cross navigator]
Involved in the challenge campaign:
Multicultural Centre Villa Victor
Oulu Deaconess Institute Foundation
Kaijonharju Youth Center