HAMK’s Christmas donation to The Finnish Diverse Learners’ Association

We want to support the promotion of accessibility with a donation instead of sending Christmas cards. For us at HAMK, it is important to be a community where everyone can feel welcome and valued.

This year, HAMK donated the Christmas card money, 3,000 euros, to The Finnish Diverse Learners’ Association. It is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to promote the learning, study and employment opportunities of different learners, as well as social inclusion. The Finnish Diverse Learners’ Association offers free guidance, counseling, peer support, trainings and events for people experiencing learning difficulties, their families and professionals.

The association was selected because promoting accessibility is important to us at HAMK. For us, accessibility is more than just the legal minimum. We want to be a community where you can feel as a welcome and valued visitor or member of the community

When we talk about the principles of accessibility, we mean our attitude towards meeting diverse people and their equal treatment as part of the university community. In addition to the attitude, we want to offer our community, for example, accessible teaching, facilities, operating methods and software. This is all part of our effort to build a community promoting diversity and well-being of its members and stakeholders – regardless of culture, customs, language, gender, ethnicity or roles, for the common good.

HAMK staff were asked for suggestions for the Christmas donation in an open survey. There were a total of 36 proposals. The union of different learners was chosen because its goals are the same as HAMK’s. In previous years, recipients of Christmas donations have been Mieli Mental Health Finland (2022), Baltic Sea Action Group (2021), and Save the Children Finland (2020).