A minority language will survive and develop, when it is used not only at home but also when communicating elsewhere. Just recently Karelian was spoken mainly at home, though the use of the Karelian language even at home declines. Thus there is a need of a place, where the Karelian
language is the main language spoken when working and studying, that is, as a language for
interacting and communicating outside one’s home.

An activist group in the village of Vieljärvi gathered on July 22, 2012 to discuss the need of a home
for the Karelian language. We reflected on how to get an own house, that is a home, where we
would be able to develop the Karelian language. The administration of the Prääsä district gave us an old building , once used for day care, built after World War II. Voluntary workers from the village started to renovate the building. Soon it was obvious that the old building was rotten to the core – the best solution was to tear it down and to build a new building. We started a public fund-raising drive for building a new house. In October 2013 the base for the building was laid. In the beginning of 2015 the roof of the new building was ready and two of its rooms were heated. The villagers started to arrange courses in two of the rooms, even though the oven constructors and other builders still were doing their job. The building was finally finished in the year 2021.

Now The Home of Karelian Language (Karjalan Kielen Kodi) is ready, the house where you can use the Karelian language while working, studying, teaching, exercising or during leisure time when mingling.