Childhood pictures

This is my childhood home in Ilomantsi the eastest place in Finland. We had a lot of space to run around the house. The house is situated on the lake Ilomantsi. So the view from our living room window was beautiful. In the evenings we could admire sun setting over the lake. I miss that view a lot! From our appartment we can see sun set too which I like a lot.





Here is our sauna. If something I miss our sauna. I have so many good memories from there. In winter we would go out and roll on the snow and in the summertime it was easy to spend hours doing the sauna and swimming. In a heat room we had big window facing the lake and the view was beautiful and it was so relaxing just to look out of it.

Here you can see me and my brother on the borch of our sauna. We still have the bath tub and both of our girls have used it.

We had a lot of animals when i was a kid. Goats were my favourites. They would follow us to our outings. Once they had kids during the winter and the goats had to stay in our bathroom because the stable was too cold for newborn kids. The kids would clime everywhere. They were jumping on ou sofas etc.







We had always cats too. I think the biggest amount was 12 cats at the same time. It's me again here enjoying the company of our cats.





For a while we also had some geese. Then we had a horse. What a fun was it to take carriage rides around Ilomantsi with family! Later on a friend of mine had her ponies at our stable and that gave me an opportunity to ride a lot and take care of them. I sure loved it!



I guess I had a very happy childhood! Hopefully we are able to give a happy childhood to our own kids too!

The slum school

We had an opportunity to visit one school in one of the slums in Lima. That was a very interesting experience to me. It made me realize that conditions im my own school are excellent!

The school was made by the parents of the area. After a big fire in Lima and flood in other part of Lima many people were homeless. Goverment gave them a piece of land up on mountainside at the end of Lima. Nothing else, just the land.

Anyway parents tought that their children should have a school and decided to build it by themselves of the materials they had there. In this picture behind the children you can see the wall of the school. It looks the same inside. Actually one thing a little girl said when asked how would she improve the school was to have walls so that the wind doesn't blow in.

Most of the classrooms have dirt floor. There's no electricity in most of the classrooms. classrooms are crowded. In one third class I counted 43 desks almost no room at all to walk around. At the end of the school yard in which weren't a single swing or other place to play was 5 lavatories. There was also a little shop to buy some snack.

The lessons were very noisy and it seemed that the ones who had the biggest voice got all the attention and teaching. Specially the girls in their back pews were left their on their own. Pupils didn't have books. They had note books where they copied the writing on a board. One boy had a puppy in his lap on a lesson. In one classroom there could be very different aged pupils because some would strat going to school later in their lives.

So teaching in those conditions seemed like a huge challenge! Far too many pupils in one classroom, no equipment, no books, no good class discipline. Big amount of pupils spoke Indian language as their mother tongue but teachers didn't understand it. But they were really trying to make it work. They wanted to have better future for those children.

The woman waving in this picture is one of the teachers. They had almost 1000 pupils and about 30 teachers. No assistants at all. She was very happy to recieve some pens and sharpeners.

One thing I have to tell you is that I really enjoyed being a teacher in Peru. Oh, You should have seen the eyes of the people when they realized I was teacher! The look was full of admiration and appreciation. I've never experienced that in my life. In Finland I always try to hide my profession as long as it's possible.

How is Plan helping the living in slums of Lima

The most interesting thing in our visit to Lima was to see how the work of Plan can be seen or is it visible at all. We visited three different slums. In one of the slums Plan had been working already 15 years and it started to look like a little town. Houses were sometimes made of brick, there were stores, big health center etc. The poorest looking slum where Plan had been the shortest time looked very different. Even the school was made of cardboard and other very rustic materials.


For the slums Plan had provided electricity, water posts and lavatories to each of the families in program. I think those are very fundamental things in improving the lives of people living in slums. Water was brought to the water posts by water tanks. One woman told that sometimes she doesn't have enough money to full the water post (it costs about 20-30 cents) and then they had to plan carefully in what to use the water. I guess they can only dream of having a bath or long showering which are matter of course to us living in a western world.

Plan also provided health center for the slums. The families with sponsored child had a free access there. They had vaccinations going on in the areas, they gave information of the hygienia issues, hiv-aids etc. There was also dental campaigns there.

In the feeld of education Plan provided education to the teachers and new materials to schools. They had special health campaigns in the schools in order to reach the whole society. During the summer holiday they had summer camps for children with different themes: Dancing, sports, cooking, radio work etc. In that way Plan wanted to increase childrens self-confidence, skills and willingness to go to school.

One very important way of helping people in slums was minicredits. Plan gave minicredits for people with business idea. Many times it was just enough money to buy a box of chokolates which the family would sell. There many people who had now their own selling booth or even a store started with very little money - just a prize of a box of chokolates!

All in all the help Plan gave was very well organized and helped the whole society to get on their own feet. The money that someone gives for the one child actually benefits many. Starting with the family of the sponsored child and also the whole society.If you want to read more about Plan or get your own sponsor child with only 25 euros a month check this:
www.plan.fi,

Jonna and Viivi playing in front of one health center.

ps. There might some things I got wrong in here but I tried to do my best. For exact information you can contact Plan Finland

My family

I realized that many of you haven't seen me or my family for a long time. Here are some pictures of us and a little update to our family life.

This is me. I am an elementary school teacher. I have a music class which means my pupils have been chosen to my class because of their musical talent. We have many applicants so pupils are very talented. We have emphasis on classical music and specially in orchestra. That means every single one of my pupils play an orchestra instrument. Pupils have 5 lessons of music each week at school. On top of that comes their instrument lessons. I really love my work and during these 4 years in Mikkola school I've learned so much in music I never taught would be possible with me. Music has become a very big and important part of my life. Of course now I enjoy the long summer vacation and time with my family.

This is my husband Juha. He works as an occupational health and safety representative in ISS Security Oy in Finland. His job takes him all over Finland where ISS has safety guards. He also studies to become a lawyer at the University of Lapland.

Here you can see our older daughter Jonna. She is now 10 years old and will go to the fifth grade after the summer holiday. She's on music class at the same school with me. She palyes the violin. She is very good at school and likes going to school and learn new things. She reads a lot and Harry Potter is one of her favourites.

Viivi is 8 years old. She also is very good at school. She is much more living personality than Jonna and it was exciting for us how she would react to the school. At least after the first year she likes it very much. Sometimes she complaines that it's too easy! She also playes the violin. I had a priviledge to accompany her in two concerts last year. That was so much fun! I never tought with my piano playing skills (I've learned it mostly by myself and I'm a poor player) I could perform some day.

Children in slums of Lima, Peru

One thing I'm never gonna forget are the children in slums in Lima. They stole a big part of my heart! They gave me something I can't explain but it definetaly feels good.

We spent one day in Keiko Sofia playing with the local kids and interviewing them to get an idea of their lives. Most of them go to school which start at 8 o'clock and ends at 1pm. Before that many of them go to work at 5 am selling candies etc. When they come from school they have to take care of their younger siblings. Some can't go to school at all because they have to stay home and babysit younger ones.

One mother told that sometimes she has to leave her children home by themselves for the whole day while she goes to work. Children are 2, 5 and 9 years old. She said that she gives them breakfast, puts their sofas together and switches the TV on. Children spend their whole day there. It felt very bad. Our older daughter is now 10 years old and we would never leave her home alone for entire day and who would leave a 2 year old child without adult supervision for the whole day!? That mother really didn't have any other choice because they need the money for food. Fortunately she doesn't have to go to work very often.

This is s picture of a girl who carried her little sister around all the day we were their. The baby cried quite often but I think big sister had got used to it. Sometimes her friends would help the big sister in baby sitting carrieng the baby for her.

This all sounds very sad and miserable but children in Keiko Sofia weren't sad or miserable. They were full of life, laughter and caring. We had very good time with them even though we didn't have a common language. We played many games, sang some songs and spent time together. I loved hearing children call me äiti (that's mother in Finnish)! Especially one boy would come all the time to hug me. I guess adults don't have enough time for the children while they have to work in order to survive. I was so happy I was able to give my time and love to them! This experience made me really thinking if I could actually go somewhere in the world for a longer time to share my time and love with kids in need. I would love to do that! I know I would recieve more than I should give.

On the rock you can see children of keiko Sofia. Girl in front row in left is our older daughter Jonna and on top of the rock in red outfit is our younger daughter Viivi. They really enjoyed their time in Keiko Sofia. It's funny how children can get along so well without verbal communication.

Visiting Peru

I had an unique opportunity to visit Peru for a week in the beginning of July. I was there with my two daughters to get to know the slums of the capital of Peru, Lima. Our main purpose was to get to know the work that Plan international does there. We had a film crew there too and they made a TV-program to Finnish TV of our visit. All interested and able to see Finnish TV look Plan ilta lapselle -program in November to find out more.

Slums in Lima look very awful. As you can see it's desert and nothing grows without planting and watering. As you can guess it's also very dusty. Houses are made of rustic materials and they look like falling down any minute. So before hand I thought that it must be miserable to live there but I was so wrong!

We spent some time especially with children and they concured my heart! They knew how to enjoy the life as it comes, they were interested in other people and always willing to help. It was something I've never experienced in Finland where we all are too busy thinking of our own life forgetting everyone else around us. People were optimistic and parents were doing their best to provid a better life to their children. Those awful looking dumbs were actually rather homy inside.

There was now sign of misery, hopelessness or apathy in those slums. I used to get angry with people who are living selfish life not thinking of people in need and not willing to help anyone else. Now I just bity them because I saw how much they miss in that way of life. No money or richness can replace the riches people experience living in need of each other! I definetaly got much than I can never give to those people...