Friend activities with a migrant

Friend activities – becoming a friend to a migrant

After completing the Red Cross friend service basic course, you can become a friend to a migrant. By spending time together, you bring joy and warmth into another person's life – and gain a good feeling yourself.

The time you give and being together can be an invaluable support for someone who has just moved to Finland. Friends visit each other's homes, attend local events together, and familiarise themselves with the local residents and services, hobby opportunities, and cultural offerings. With a friend, you can go mushroom picking, visit a lookout tower, or try ice swimming.

The friends themselves define what they want to do together. Likewise, they agree between themselves on how often they meet. Often, the most important thing is simply spending unhurried time in a friend's company. We hope you will be able to meet your friend about 1–2 times a month and commit to the activity for about a period of approximately one year.

Read more about the friend activities here.

Online friend activities

You can also act as a friend online! Some of those looking for a friend hope to find a Finnish-speaking friend, but we also receive quite a few friend requests in English, for example. You can read more about online friend activities here.

How to get involved in friend activities

Sign up for a friend activities basic course either online or in your local area. You can find upcoming training courses on Oma Punainen Risti. Training courses are organised both online and face-to-face. If you cannot find a suitable training course, you can contact your local friend referral service directly. The contact details for friend referral services can be found here.

To become an online friend, you can complete either:

• the basic course in online friend activities (3 hours) or
• the basic course in friend activities and the online induction for online friends

Training path

• Welcome to the Red Cross (45 min), online self-study.
• Basic course in friend activities (3 hours) – find the next course on Oma Punainen Risti.
• Supporting integration (3 hours) – find the next course on Oma Punainen Risti.

Other recommended training courses

• Diversity in volunteer work – find the next course on Oma Punainen Risti.

Materials

• Materials to support volunteer activities that support integration can be found here.