MTÜ Meiela kodulehekülg!

History

In Võru county, on the highest hill of Nõnova village, stood the Höörde farm that has played a role in Estonian history. The farm belonged to Peeter Vremann (changed to Veermaa in 1936), one of the most innovative farmers far and wide.

Family portrait of Peeter ja Ann (nee Sarnits) Vreemann, their daughter Irene, sons Friedrich and Richard (1913)

Men from this farm played leading roles in Estonian defense and law enforcement structures. Friedrich Vreeman, head of the Võru county Defense League and chief of the southern military district in the early days of the Estonian War of Independence, hails from here.

Friedrich Vreemann (1918)

On December 5, 1918 the first defensive encounter on the southern front during the Independence War was fought on the farm. The Estonian forces under F. Vreeman's command repelled the advancing Reds.

Friedrich and Richard (1914-1915)

Friedrich Vreeman was killed on March 23, 1919 in the Rõuge battle. He is buried on the family plot in Pindi cemetery; in the fall of 1994 his grave marker, destroyed during the Soviet period, was restored.

Richard Veermaa (Vreemann) and his wife Helmi

Richard Vreeman, born and raised on the same farm, also participated in the War of Independence. From 1935-1939 he worked in the Estonian ministry of interior and the police directorate. He perished on February 19, 1942 in the Solikamsk death camp.

Farm daughter Ireen married Konstantin Kirsipuu, deputy director general of police who disappeared without a trace early in the Soviet occupation. Ireen's two sons joined the U.S. military after making their way to America. The older son, Tõnis, a test pilot, was killed on February 2, 1960, the younger son, Rein, was killed in action in Korea on June 11, 1953.

The only one of Ireen's family to survive is daughter Tiiu Rita Yarborough, who, along with her brothers and mother, went through all the perils and hardships of a war refugee, bereft of everything. And when she received back her grandfather's homestead after the collapse of the Soviet system, she wanted to bequeth it to the Estonian people with a wish that it serve as a home for children who had lost self-confidence and domestic security.

In 1999, under Kalle Arumae's leadership, an NGO was formed to carry out the donor's wishes. The idea was to establish a Võru county residential child care facility by 2001.

Architect and artist Leonhard Lapin drew up the design. The foundations and basement were completed and work was begun on the first floor, but for lack of finances construction stopped and the building was mothballed. When the Ministry of Social Affairs reformed the child care system it was decided to abandon the idea of a residential child care facility and look for alternative uses for the site.

On February 14, 2008 the NGO Meiela was estabished. Instead of a child care facility planning began for a communal residential facility for intellectually challenged youths.