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Open Estonia Foundation 20

The Open Estonia Foundation today celebrates its 20th anniversary. Due to flight cancellations all over Europe, the XV Open Society Forum scheduled for today will be postponed. However, regardless of the weather conditions a brand new book "Becoming Estonia" was published yesterday, telling OEF's history through enjoyable stories and photos.

The foundation was established in April 1990 with support from the philanthropist George Soros to help Estonia build a free society and develop relations with the democratic world. One of OEF's first initiatives was a training program for Estonian farmers in the USA. OEF also organized seminars on privatization and media freedom, gave travel grants to Estonian experts to participate in international meetings, and supported young people's studies at universities in the West.

In two decades the foundation has carried out and supported initiatives for more than 500 million Estonian kroons in tens of different fields, from medicine to media and from modern art to e-governance. "We believe we have managed to do our best to initiate social changes in Estonia but it seems we will have enough work for the next 20 years as well," said OEF's Executive Director Mall Hellam, who has been leading OEF since its first days.

Several new ideas and programs initiated by the Open Estonia Foundation have by now developed into independent organizations, such as Debate Estonia, Estonian Center for Contemporary Arts, Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations, Centre for Policy Studies Praxis, and the pre-school education program Head Start.