A bus picked up all the delegates from the various countries at the two hotels where they are staying and took everyone to the Light House, the headquarters building of the Finnish Association of the Deaf. It is a large, purpose-build complex of buildings that houses everything from administrative offices to a TV production studio.
Pekka Mikkola, the head of the Development Department of the Finnish Association of the Deaf, welcomed everyone to the Light House. The morning session was on fund-raising, led by a deaf leader from the deaf association in Tanzania, and the afternoon session was on sign language development in Albania.
There are about 60 persons attending the working sessions with the FAD partner groups, and 12 of them are interpreters who all work at once! The speakers all give their presentations in English, and then it is translated into the national sign language of each of the partner countries.
Ms. Liisa Hyssälä, the Minister of Health and Social Services, speaks to the assembled deaf delegates, flanked by two interpreters for Finnish Sign Language and International Signs.
In the evening all the delegates from the partner organizations and the FAD staff were invited to another gathering, an informal social, in downtown Helsinki, within walking distance of the delegates' hotels.