Lauri Beekman of Tallinn, Estonia is
publishing a newspaper
for youth called “OK – Ole
Kaine!” (Ole - Be Kaine -
sober) about alcohol abuse. It is sent to all high schools in Estonia.
LifeNets
is helping sponsor this program. Lauri has a daily radio program about
social issues in Estonia and he is head of the Estonian Temperance Union.
From 1994 to 2004 the use of alcohol has doubled among young people ages
11-15. Alcohol problems have grown also in Estonia.Every year in Estonia there are
about 1500-2500 alcohol related deaths. 60% of injuries are connected with
the alcohol use.
According to the research conducted in Estonia
in 1999, 85% of young people
have used alcohol.
Stories below tell of his work and LifeNets
involvement in helping.
Estonian Temperance
Union organized 10th of October first Memorial Concert for Alcohol
Victims. Every year about 2000 people die due to the problems with
alcohol use. That makes about 35 000 deaths since 1991, when Estonia
gained again its independence. Not only alcohol users themselves are among
those numbers. Often innocent bystanders – victims of drunk-drivers,
violence and accidents. Thousands of children are living with parents
who have serious alcohol problems. Only now we are starting to realize
how many children have been damaged already before their birth, because
their mother drunk alcohol while pregnant. Anyhow, we are speaking about
tragedies and the society thinks that there is nothing to do.
Sponsors::
These statistical
numbers are not coming from polls or from somebody’s opinion. These
numbers are coming from hospitals, morgues and police. Behind these
statistical numbers are ordinary people – sons and daughters, mothers
and fathers. Somebody’s friends, somebody’s darlings. People, who might
have lived...
Concert took place at
the St Johns Lutheran Church in Tallinn and it was organized in
cooperation with the network of Christian classical professional
musicians Crescendo. Estonian National Youth Symphony Orchestra
performed modern classical composers. The
orchestra was conducted by Lehari Kaustel.
One of the co-sponsors of the project was
also LifeNets International. This help has been warmly appreciated and
we hope for good cooperation in the future.
Our visit to [nk] alchohol-free
cafe run by Lauri Beekman in central Tallinn on July 23,
2008. From left: Britton Taylor, Jim Franks, Beverly
Kubik, Victor Kubik and Toomas Schvaak.
Updated October 30, 2007
My Visit to the
Kohvik (Cafe)
in Tallinn, Estonia on October 4, 2007
On Friday, October 4 on the
way back from Saaremaa Island I stopped by to see the Noortekohvik
alcohol and drug-free cafe in Tallinn. The Ministry of Social
Affairs donated space in their building to start the cafe on the ground
floor of a busy Tallinn street right next to Old Town. The location is
excellent.
Lauri Beekman walked about
3/4 mile to get me at the hotel I was staying at and we both walked back
to the cafe and talked over a latte. I was really impressed by the
idealism and pro-activism of the young people who have gotten together
to open this safe location for young people's socializing. The
cafe is open from 4:00 PM until 10 PM. I really enjoyed watching
and the different young people come in and interact. The youth did
a lot of the work in painting and decorating the location for the cafe.
Lauri and I talked for about
an hour before I headed back. He is the head of the Estonian
Temperance Union. He is a daily radio program on a Christian radio
station that is heard throughout around the country. LifeNets is a
sponsor of his Ole Kaine (OK) or "Be Sober" program targeted at teens.
Below are a few photos of my visit.
- Victor Kubik
A comfortable place for young people to get together after
school
Lauri Beekman
outside the cafe
The cafe is located on a busy street in downtown Tallinn
Lauri Beekman and
Victor Kubik chatting inside the cafe
UPDATED September 22, 2007
LifeNets has continued to support the
work of OK in Estonia this year. Founder / Director Lauri Beekman writes this
report.
The time has passed and I´m
happy to say that our organistion, Estonian Temperance Union, is
growing and expanding quite fast.
One of the biggest advancements
has been the opening of the first alcohol-free cafe in Estonia
at the end of May, 2007. The place just in the
center of the Tallinna, Estonia´s capital, has become a youthful
place where young people can stay and
keep it as their own place,
where there is no smoke nor alcohol allowed. Our aim is to create an
environment where there is just no room for those legal and of
course illegal drugs. You can visit our website
http://www.ave.ee/kohvik/ and perhaps the gallerys are more
understandable to you, since we dont have any English text there.
Gallerys are
http://picasaweb.google.com/kohvik
The cafe has been closely
linked with the youth paper OK, that has been regurlarly supported
by the LifeNets International. Young people who have been active in
the paper have grown and found interest in helping with the cafe
project.
A special subject that we have
dealt with has been fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). It has been almost
totally ignored here so far. Doctors are hesitant to speak about
alcohol dangers with their patients. We published the first booklet
about FAS
http://www.ave.ee/fas/voldik.pdf and opened a special website
about it
http://www.ave.ee/fas/
In the middle of September we
are launching a mediacampaign about FAS with TV ads, web-banners and
printmedia coverage. 1500 posters of the kind on the right
have been distributed. This
is one of the biaggest projects that we have done so far. Also
financially. And here we are happy to accept again help from
LifeNets International. Thank you very much for that.
We are also planning a seminar
for medical workers about FAS. The lecturer is planned to invite
from France. We hope to get help from French Embassy.
Our cooperation in European
level has also grown. We are official partners in the Alcohol and
Health Forum of the European Commission. We are also participating
in a European-wide project called Building Capacity.
International research has
shown that alcohol advertsing is one of the main reasons for youth
consumption. We have started a campaign to support the ban of
alcohol advertising. We are gathering support letters from different
NGO-s. The special web-site about the project and the growing list
of the supporters is here:
http://www.ave.ee/manifest/
Kohvik (Cafe)
in Tallinn, Estonia on October 4, 2007
