Nr. 23
EESTI ELU reedel, 12. juunil 2020 — Friday, June 12, 2020
9
An optimistic future for Seedrioru As most people undoubtedly know, traditional summer camp at Seedrioru is can celled this year due to COVID-19. Which is really a shame, as the Seedrioru camp grounds have witnessed a great revival during the past 5 years. Thanks to a large infusion of cash from the incredibly generous Tark estate, the need to upgrade to new government standards, capable leadership by the board along with generous help from other volunteers, Seedrioru started a large scale sewer/water project 5 years ago to improve the camp and the surrounding cottages. While understandably this is not a glamorous project com parable to a new swimming pool or sauna, it is nevertheless vital and necessary infrastruc ture without which the continu ing operations of Seedrioru would not be possible. Most of the work of this large scale project has been completed – what remains are only finishing touches. But more importantly, thanks to the hope and excitement that this large project brought about, several other, smaller projects at Seedrioru have also been started and/or completed. Seedrioru Saun has been completely re built using Seedrioru’s own cedars, a new beautiful comfort station with up to date shower and bathroom facilities has been assembled from made-in-Esto nia materials and is 99% com pleted, mudilaste playground is rebuilt, TEPP lasketiir is active and operational with its beauti fully renovated range building,
a complete rebuild of the swim ming docks has been started and renovation of the tared is also underway. For seasonal residents, the sewage infrastruc ture projects also mean getting up-to-date facilities to indivi dual cottages. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has led to the cancellation of talgud and many of the near-completed projects remain unfinished or are being finished with revised timelines. Former Seedrioru President Eric Tiisler had this to say: “Seedrioru is suffering from restrictions brought on by the pandemic, like everyone else. I am glad to say that major capi tal improvements at Seed rioru, including the site-wide sewage system and the new washroom and shower facility, are 90% done. In the last few years, much work has been done to adapt and upgrade our facilities to meet current needs and stan dards while continuing the lega cy started by our grandfathers. Seedrioru is first and fore most for the kids. For their benefit, the sleeping cabins have received upgrades in floor ing, windows, doors, fire alarms, additional washrooms and new roofs. People are responding, camp enrolment is up, as is (pandemic limitations not with standing) volunteer participa tion, the energy from the com munity is surging. Elagu Seedrioru!” Updates regarding evolving plans for talgud, day camp and other activities at Seedrioru can be found by following www. seedrioru.com or the Seedrioru Facebook page.
Pigroast 2019
Eric Tiisler thanking volunteers during talgud.
Suvihari 2018 participants enjoying a sunny day. Newly renovated sauna in the background.
Excelling in the midst of adversity (part one): Coping as a strategy A collaboration between Chaordic Design and Estonian Life At Chaordic Design, we are interested in more than inno vation. Our key purpose is to help organizations and com munities grow and transform, to co-create a thriving world together. Our continuing search for the best ways to facilitate change led us to a wealth of shared heritage, that is now more relevant than ever. In this series of articles we are excited to share some of our key findings, and are privileged to be partnering with Estonian Life. Together, we e xplore inno vation insights from the stand points of Esto nian history, fe male leadership, and leaders everywhere. Our first topic in this series is ‘coping’. What is coping? Why is it so important from an innovation perspective? Today, innovation is much more than a buzzword. It has become a business, organiza tional and community priority. A key part of innovation is adapting to change. And a key enabler of adaptation is the pro cess of coping. In these unprec edented times, nearly everyone is coping with some changes, as part of an adaptation process. How might we make this process of adaptation easier – for our families, friends, col leagues, and communities? Innovation theory has some rel evant insights to offer. Profound insights often come from un expected places. In 1972, Aaron Antonovsky – then a health re searcher and professor of medi cal sociology – started explor ing the phenomenon of coping. While exploring this topic, he became curious that an inex plicably significant portion of women he interviewed in his re search – who were all Holo caust survivors – did not exhibit any significant signs of debili tating psychological trauma. In fact, nearly one-third of these women had positive psychologi cal health. Antonovsky was understand ably puzzled by this. How
could this be possible? After all, these women had witnessed unimaginable horrors, and barely survived themselves. And yet, they were psychologi cally as sound and healthy as any of us. To explore this further, Antonovsky focused his re search towards understanding how people can cope effectively in times of challenge, turmoil, and uncertainty. His resulting books, “Health, Stress and Cop ing” (1979), and “Un raveling the Mysteries of Health” (1987), outlined some remark able findings. Antonovsky discovered that “specific personal dispositions serve to make individuals more resilient to the stressors they encounter in daily life”1. He posited that health is more like a continuum. On one end was “health-ease” – and on the other “dis-ease”. Well-being could be supported with specific actions – a process he called “saluto genesis”2, or creation of health. What led one closer to the health portion of this spectrum was a phenomenon he termed as “sense of coherence”. And what specifically en abled people to cope with even the most difficult circumstan ces, he argued, were only three key criteria. The first one was identified as an ability to create a ‘mental map’, describing how one might make it through a chal lenging situation. This map needed to include the key ‘way points’ and resting stops along the way. The second criterion was that one should have an understand
ing of the resources that are available to them. These re sources could be big or small – as long as one understood that they were enough to help them keep going. And the third criterion was that the journey itself was ex perienced as meaningful. How ever difficult a challenge, if it could somehow be understood as having personal meaning, then the journey through the unknown could also be with stood. In this way, Antonovsky de scribed one of the most profound enablers of personal, organiza tional and community coping. Estonians throughout history have mastered coping and adap tation strategies themselves. Estonian women continue to employ them today, in their own leadership practices. Estonian women gained the de facto right to vote and stand in elections when Estonia gained independence in 1918. Estonian women were instrumental to creating this environment and in crafting the Constitution, to in clude women as equally as they could when it was adopted in 1920. Women consisted of 8.8 percent of parliamentary repre sentatives in the sixth and final parliament, prior to the 1940 Soviet occupation. This repre sentation was amended by the quotas put in place by the “Supreme Soviet” legislative body. Women held up to one third of the body’s seats, but had real decision-making power taken from them. Back to square one, they fought for democracy in new ways. Considering the social con text of the time, women often coped in adversity by helping their loved ones stay alive. For (Continued on page 10)
Praxis Mõttekoda’s presentation “Naised Poliitikas”.
