NGO ZZ Noortekas

NGO ZZ NOORTEKAS brings together youngsters from the area of Kambja which has 2530 inhabitants on area of 189.2 square kilometer , which is located near one of the biggest cities in Estonia. In the youth centre our basic visitors are youngsters aged 10 -20 years old. Near our organisation we have several other foundations by the government, e.g kinder garden and a school, to whom we could also be the coordinating party. In addition, in the area of Tartu county, we have many partners in different locations and environments, with whom we are in close connection and with whom we cooperate a lot. In the centre we have 2 employees (the manager of the building and youth-worker) and several persons who do volunteer-work, for example they organise and lead different workshops and activities. The volunteers are either parents of some youngsters or people who have left the area once, but then have returned and feel the need to do something good. Every day we have different amount of youngsters here in the centre. On a usual day we have about 10 youngsters who either play pool, WII, board games, games on computer or just listen to music etc. On the days when we have workshops there are usually a bit more youngsters and sometimes also grown-ups who participate in our activities. We are opened to everyone from Monday to Thursday 5 hours each day, but we also have activities on the weekends and outside the official work time. We have one youth worker who is at the centre every day. Our most popular activity is “the movie night” when usually on Fridays we show the newest movies all night long. Mainly the youngsters in this area are youngster with fewer opportunities in the sense of university and studying opportunities. Since they have not been outside the area very often, they are close-minded and therefore a bit less ambitious. Through the activities we have here, we try to make them more active, more aware about their opportunities today, rather than the opportunities their parents had and show them that citizens today are not just citizens of our country but citizens of Europe. We are funded by the local government, the municipality covers our management expenses and salaries. Finances for projects and activites/workshops etc we have to find elsewhere. We write several projects a year to renew our technical and other supplies so the centre will be attractive for the youngsters. The volunteers organize events in the centre, eg Beauty pageant; Snowtown; cooking classes. Hopefully this year we begin with a new project- a band. One volunteer will be the leader and the mentor of a youth band and he will teach the youngsters how to play different musical instruments.