We are the Finnish  partner

KuuRet 55+ is a sub group of the club Kuusankosken Retkeilijät ry. (Kuusankoski Travel and Hiking Club) The club started in Kuusankoski (a former independent town, since 2009 a part of the town of Kouvola) in south-eastern Finland, in 1979. The town of Kouvola is wide in area and mostly rural, e.g. it includes a large National Park.

Kuusankosken Retkeilijät is a member of the Union of Workers’ Travel and Hiking Clubs in Finland, which in its turn is a member of the worldwide Naturfreunde Internationale (NFI). The club aims at encouraging people to take part in activities in our natural environment with regard to ecological viewpoints. Today the club has some 300 members, many of whom are senior citizens. Members of the club help old or disabled people to take part in various activities. The club has been active in various social happenings arranged by our town and other organizations. Participation is based on volunteering.

The program of the club includes giving people interested in outdoor activities information on ecology and history and traditions of the places visited, arranging excursions both in our own town Kouvola with its surroundings and in Lapland as well as cultural excursions, various outdoor activities, travelling abroad at moderate expense and planning and organizing programs for visitors to Finland by using voluntary team work. The activities include project work and offer participants multiple transnational learning possibilities.

In 2006-2008 the club acted as a silent partner in an EU project “Travel Agents 55 + without frontiers”. A network of groups working for similar causes in ten European countries was created during the project. The themes of the project were mobility, voluntary work, lifelong learning and active ageing. After that EU project the club has continued with similar activities. With Grundtvig funding, the club has been the coordinator of a learning partnership project ”European Approach” (2010-2012), arranged a workshop “Many Faces of Finnish Nature Environment” (August 2011).

A senior volunteering project “Taking Care” with a Portuguese partner is taking place Sep 2011 - August 2013. In addition to the Active Senior project our organisation will host a workshop "Excercise and Learn in the Nature Environment" in May 2013.

The KuuRet 55+ group is growing all the time, which is a sign that our goals are good and well accepted.

                                                   *    *    *    *    *    *

Greetings to all project partners from KuuRet 55+ group!