Mariia is a Neighbourhood Mother from
Lappeenranta. She moved to Finland from
Ukraine about five and half years ago. This is
Mariia’s story of how she became a
Neighbourhood mother and how it changed her
life.
A move that was never imagined
“My story begins when I met a Finnish man on the
intern et and we started dating. At the time, I didn’t
even think that I would move to completely new
country. But that’s what happened. We first
thought about which country would be better to
live in, Finland or Ukraine. Finally, we decided to
move to Finland. This was because the language
and the Ukrainian script was so different
compared to Finnish and it would have been
difficult for my partner to manage in Ukraine.”
Mariia and her partner moved to Tampere and she
started studying Social Policy at the University of
Tampere. “In Tampere, I had a large circle of
friends. When I became pregnant, we decided to
move to Lappeenranta because we would be
closer to my partner’s family and our support
network would be close by.”
“I didn’t know anyone in Lappeenranta. I found it
hard to adapt here because everything was new: I
had a new baby, the environment was new, and I
did not have friends. I missed meeting up for
activities or having a friend to go out for a walk
with. So, I decided to find out what kind of
activities were available in Lappeenranta. After my
studies and my stint of maternity leave, I decided
to join a Finnish language course. However,
because I had already been living in the country
for three years, I was not able to participate in the
regular integration course that was offered to new
immigrants. I had to look at other ways of learning
Finnish independently.”
A search
In trying to find cheap ways to study
Finnish, Mariia came across the the
Neighbourhood Mothers’ Facebook
group. It seemed to be just what she
was looking for. She joined the group
even though she did not know what the
Neighbourhood Mothers did.
Coincidently, at the same time, Mariia
saw a local news feature on
Neighbourhood Mothers and decided
that it could be an activity that she could
participate in. She remembers, “In the
Neighbour Mothers’ group, everyone
was at the same level and had the same
challenges: everyone seemed to find the
language and culture difficult to adapt
to.” It was through Neighbourhood
Mothers’ project that Maria learned
Finnish, created a new network and
gained new friends. “I also understood
that I was not alone in my situation." says
Mariia.
Active involvement
After becoming a Neighbourhood
Mother, Mariia has been actively
involved in a variety of events. To
mention just a few, Mariia has organized
a poster competition that was funded by
the Ministry of Education and Culture,
arranged English playgroups for
children and has been working together
with Mannerheim's Welfare Association
to organize a play day for families. She
has also been involved in the "Minäkin
olen Suomi" project, a collection of
stories from people of different
international backgrounds that was part
of the celebrations for Finland's 100th
year of independence.