INTERNET IN SAAMI FOR YOUTH

Youth clubs in Karasjok, Lakselv, and Kautokeino in northern Norway want to help Saami youth make contacts with peers in other countries through the Internet. According to The Ethnologue (14th Edition), there are about 31,600 to 42,600 ethnic Saami in Norway (1995).

A pre-feasibility study has now started with funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. Work will be coordinated by Mr. Odd de Presno, Kidlink's Executive Director, supported by the Saami Council. Kidlink is a global organization of volunteers helping kids and youth get control over their lives and communicate with peers.

Many young persons find it more fun and challenging to get new friends than to fill their evenings with violence, pornography, and games. However, they do not always find it easy to answer questions from new friends about who they are, where they live, rights, roots, friends, and family. To support them with this, the youth clubs therefore also want to put Saami language and culture on the agenda.

"Youth of Saami descent is special, also because there are so few of them," says Odd de Presno, "When they come out in the world, they discover that others consider them as exotic, both in terms of where they live, their culture, way of life, society, and language. This gives Saami youth interesting advantages and opportunities. "

Strengthening Saami youth's knowledge of and feelings about their own background will help them at school. Discussions about important aspects of life with peers in other places might help reduce violence, mobbing, racism, drug abuse, and criminality.

Karasjok Ungdomsklubb, Kautokeino I.L.'s "Møteplassen", and Kiowato Ungdomsklubb at Lakselv want to serve youth with computers and Internet in their premises. The young persons will communicate in Saami with other Saami speaking kids and youth living in the northern part of Europe, and peers elsewhere in Norwegian, English, or whatever language that might be most practical.

Kidlink organizes discussions about life between kids and youth around the world, and have a Saami language version of the multi-lingual Who-am-I? program. They offer a free Saami language web site for youth-published web pages about their language and culture in support of their international dialog. All Saami adults are invited to contact Odd de Presno if they want to participate in a volunteer effort to make Saami language and culture more visible in the global society.

Organizations in several countries work with Kidlink to serve youth and children on their free time. In Brazil, Kidlink works with another indigenous community called Fulni-o. The results of the pre-feasibility study will be presented to the Ministry of Education and Research this fall.

LINKS:
Gii Lean Mun? (Who-Am-I? in Saami)
Who-Am-I?
Kidlink's model for partnerships
The World Bank's infoDev eXchange Newsletter on Kidlink's work
and model
Odd de Presno

More information:
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April 11, 2002: KHouse Farol do Mucuripe opens in Fortaleza/CE, Brazil