PROJECTS

The single largest project that has been undertaken by the Juminkeko Foundation and its partner the Arhippa Perttunen Foundation in the Karelian Republic is the revitalization of threatened folklore villages in Viena Karelia. This project was begun in the early 1990s and is expected to last 25 years. In 1993, the project was regognised by UNESCO as an activity of World Decade for Cultural Development.

The rescue of Paanajärvi village from the flood basin of a proposed hydroelectric plant is also a key project. The Juminkeko Foundation has successfully petitioned the World Monuments Watch to have the village included in the organization's list of a hundred most threatened cultural sites in the world for the last five years. The Samuel H. Kress Foundation from the United States has also supported the rescue of this village. Other important sources of funding are the Finnish Ministries of Environment and Foreign Affairs.

The European Union has actively sponsored Juminkeko in the production of AV-programmes and the provision of cultural services. The Juminkeko Foundation has participated in numerous projects for the development of alternative travel forms and the collection and preservation of indigenous cultures.

In cooperation with the Vietnamese Kalevala Friendship Society, the Juminkeko Foundation has supported the creation of a novel epic based on Vietnamese folk poems and the Kalevala constructing methods.