The collaborative initiative launched by Moniheli ry actively engaged people with migrant backgrounds in participating and influencing the 2025 municipal and county elections. At the heart of the project were Moniheli’s member associations, which organized dozens of events across Finland—reaching a total of 1,776 participants in 13 different languages through the efforts of 14 associations.
Events were organized in 15 different municipalities, from Helsinki to Rautjärvi and from Vaasa to Lappeenranta. Several associations and language communities took part, hosting info sessions and panel discussions in their native languages. The range of languages was exceptionally broad: Finnish, English, Dari, Somali, Kurdish, Igbo, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kazakh, Russian, Urdu, Arabic, and Ukrainian.
At the events, participants were informed about Finland’s political system, the importance of elections, and voting rights. “The most important thing was to ensure that information about political rights reached people in their own language and in a familiar environment,” says Latif Fayaz, the project coordinator at Moniheli. "This is a concrete step toward a more inclusive and equal democracy."
The project demonstrated that language- and culture-sensitive communication plays a key role in building trust and lowering the threshold for participation. Moniheli will continue its work in support of a multilingual democracy in the future as well.
Event coordination was done by ANDSEA ry and the TULIP ry. Additionally, events for specific language groups were coordinated by Suomen Hazaroiden Kulttuuriyhdistys ry (dari) and the Suomen Somaliopiskelijat ry (Somali).
Also organising events were AFAES ry, ILCAN ry, Wodess ry, Keski-Asian Kansojen Yhdistys Julduz ry, PinFin ry, United Vision ry, Tampereen Ukrainalaisten Yhdistys Suomessa ry, Umuco ry and the Etelä-Sudan ja Sudan Sawa ry.