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Helsinkia healthier

Hels ink i - i n fo Issue 4 – 2011 September 19

Contents

Spektr offers information in Russian

2 InfocentreinJätkäsaari

2 Newerainclassicalmusic

3 TowardsahealthierHelsinki

6 Finnishatplaygrounds

6 Publicplaygrounds

7 Glossary

8 Daycarehasagoodreputation

10EilinaGusatinskyandSpektr

12 Inthegalleryandathome

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Towards

Helsinki Music Centre lies on a prime site in the Töölö Bay area flanked by the imposing buildings of Parliament, Museum of Con-temporary Art Kiasma and the Sanoma media headquarters. The adjacent park enters the building through extensive glass walls.

Architectural design is by LPR

New era in classical musicHelsinkiMusicCentre,thelongawaitednewmusiccomplexinthecitycentre,celebrateditsgrandopeninginAugustwithagalaconcertfeaturingthemainusersofthecentre–HelsinkiPhilharmonicOrchestra,TheFinnishRadioSymphonyOrchestraandtheSibeliusAcademy.

Architects, with MarkoKivistö as architect-in-charge. The Music Centre’s acoustics are first rate and highly praised by both musi-cians and the audience. The acoustician is Nagata Acoustics of Japan, led by YasuhisaToyota. n www.musiikkitalo.fi/web/en/

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Currently under construction by the sea in southern Helsinki, Jätkäsaari will accommodate approximately 16 000 residents and 6000 jobs by the year 2025 – only ten minutes by tram from the very centre of the city.

A renovated red brick building called Huutokonttori now houses the info centre of the area. An illustrative exhibition of the future of Jätkäsaari, containing also a scale model of the area and a

Info centre in Jätkäsaarilarge multitouch wall, is on display in on the first floor while a cafete-ria will open on the ground floor by the turn of the year.

” Here you can ask anything about Jätkäsaari – be it future housing projects, architecture, traffic solutions or environmental questions”, says RistoMäkeläinen (pictured below), coordinator of the info centre.

n http://en.uuttahelsinkia.fi/

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ByJohannaLemola

Towards a healthier HelsinkiHelsinki’sHealthCentreplansandrunspublichealthprogrammestohelpcitizensleadbetterandmorerewardinglives.

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RiittaSimoila deals with grave matters. Titled Development Director, she leads a strategic unit at the City of Helsinki’s pub-lic health arm, the Health Centre, which tackles one of the city’s main challenges: the deteriorat-ing health of citizens.

“These are hard numbers,” she says, looking at data on smok-ing, alcohol use and weight gain. The three areas are targets of the Health Centre’s most recent and new public health campaigns.

Simoila points out a clash that is bound to overburden public health care: “Life expectancy is going up, but people are becom-ing sicker.” If allowed to con-tinue, this trend will have a devastating effect on the City economy. Equally devastating is the effect on individuals.

“Why not make the most out of our longer lifespan by enjoy-ing it in the best health possi-ble”? Simoila says, urging

people to take responsibility for their health – for their own good.

Smoke-freecityThe service of the City of Hel-sinki Health Centre most obvious to citizens is primary health care available to all residents at health stations, maternity clinics and child health clinics. The Health Centre has an equally important task: promoting health by preventing health problems from arising.

Since 2007, Simoila’s unit has been conducting a smoke-free city campaign. According to the campaign objectives, children and young people should be protected against tobacco smoke and discouraged from smoking. Smoking is not allowed any-where in the City workplaces, and the staff is encouraged to quit smoking. The City runs a tobacco clinic which helps citi-zens to quit.

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The results are encouraging. For example, smoking among expectant mothers has gone down, thanks to work done at maternity clinics.

“My general impression from the City staff is that many have quit altogether, and many oth-ers have cut down on smok-ing,” Simoila says.

However, much remains to be done. Smoking in schools has not gone down, despite a broad programme ranging from quit-smoking courses to alternative activities for recess.

Usealcoholresponsibly“Alcohol kills working-age people,” Simoila continues, pointing out the most dramatic effect of alcohol use among the Finns. Alcohol consumption has multiplied in Finland over the past few decades. Finnish teenagers are among the hard-est drinking in their age groups in Europe.

Simoila chairs a working group that has drafted a pro-gramme to promote responsi-ble alcohol use in Helsinki. The programme targets the price, availability and marketing of alcoholic drinks. The goals are to reduce overall alcohol con-sumption in Helsinki, to pro-tect children and young people from alcohol use, and to inter-vene in problem use at an early stage.

NationgettingfatterThe newest risk to public health recognized in Helsinki and all of Finland is the increasing weight of citizens.

Twenty percent of the Finns including school-aged children are overweight, and five per-cent are obese. “The Finns are already among the fattest peo-ple in Europe,” Simoila con-firms.

Overweight can cause many health problems including type

2 diabetes. If the number of overweight and obese people remains at today’s level, new cases of type 2 diabetes alone will increase dramatically in Fin-land.

PioneerinFinlandLast spring the City of Helsinki

was awarded as the best smoke-free workplace in Finland by a campaign to make the country smoke-free by 2040.

“We’re not the first smoke-free municipality in Finland, but our efforts are consistent,” Simoila says.

Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare maintains an indicator for health promotion capacity building. This indicator gives a high mark for the efforts of Helsinki’s Health Centre.

Simoila calls for City decision makers to join in the health pro-motion efforts: “All City deci-sions should be based on their effects on health.”

Did you know?

In some Helsinki suburbs, one-quar-ter of expectant mothers are over-weight. The probability that their children also become overweight is four times higher compared to chil-dren of normal-weight mothers. If the father is also overweight, the probability is ten times higher.

The percentage of students who smoke daily in Helsinki is 15 in the last two grades of comprehensive school, 14 in general upper second-ary education and 41 in vocational schools (14-18 year olds). In 2009, 40 percent of the homes of 12-18 years olds did not forbid their teen-agers to smoke.

Alcohol lies behind 60 diseases and health hazards. It is in the same cancer risk category as smok-ing and asbestos. Alcohol-related diseases and alcohol poisoning are the biggest causes of death among working-age men and women in Finland, bigger than heart diseases and cancer.

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“Immigrants in Helsinki include many mothers of small children,” says LeenaPellilä, acting Director of Immigration Affairs in Helsinki. “The City now gives them an opportunity to learn Finnish at playgrounds.”

The Finnish language teaching was begun as a pilot project last spring. The participating playgrounds also offer supervised care for the children during classes.

Finnish

PublicsupervisedplaygroundsnowofferFinnish-languageclassesforimmigrantmothers.Playgroundsprovideanaturallearningenvironmentinasocialcontext.

Lenka Piipari’s children, one-year-old Eino and three-year-old Anežka, have great fun at their local playground.

Public playgroundsThe City of Helsinki operates supervised public playgrounds for small and school-aged chil-dren at close to 70 locations throughout the city. The play-grounds offer indoor and out-door activities for children throughout the year.

Indoor facilities are reserved for families from morning to noon and for school children from noon to 16:00. Some playgrounds organize activities for young people after 16:00. Children unable to manage by themselves must be accompa-nied by an adult. During the school year, school children can receive a snack against a small fee. Those playgrounds that stay open through summer months give children a free warm meal.

Public playgrounds are unify-ing hubs for joint activities in their communities.

at playgroundsByPäiviArvonen

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“We have received good feedback from the activity,” Pellilä confirms. The classes continue in autumn 2011.

LenkaPiipari emigrated from the Czech Republic six years ago. She took a Finnish class at the Tuorinniemi play-ground in the spring and warmly recom-mends the same to all immigrant mothers.

“The course was a very positive experi-ence to me,” she says. “I knew Finnish before, but I rarely spoke Finnish with my immigrant friends. We usually spoke Eng-lish. The class encouraged me to express myself in Finnish, even with my friends.”

“It’s excellent to have someone take care of the kids during class, because

immigrants rarely have grandmothers and other social networks to turn to with childcare,” Piipari comments.

“Mothers need some time for them-selves, too. It was easy to linger on after the class to chat with other moth-ers and to get to know them better.”

Besides Tuorinniemi, Finnish-language classes for immigrant mothers are offered by the Lehdokki, Rantapuisto and Traktori playgrounds. The classes meet twice a week with a professional Finnish teacher. The classes are free of charge but require registration. Ask for more information at your local play-ground.

Glossary

Translated by Johanna Lemola

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English Finnish

Playground leikkipuisto

Immigrant maahanmuuttaja

Mother äiti

Learn oppia

Snack välipala

Warm meal lämmin ateria

Czech Republic Tsekin tasavalta

Recommend suositella

Encourage rohkaista

Grandmother isoäiti

Childcare lastenhoito

Free of charge maksuton

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Day carehas a goodreputation“Helsinkidaycarecentresarebringingupapopulationwithgoodlanguageskills,”saysNinaOnufriew,adaycaredevelopmentconsultantattheCityofHelsinkiSocialServicesDepartment,pointingouthowimportantitistosupportchildren’sbilingualdevelopment.

ByPäiviArvonen

The most frequently spoken lan-guage at Helsinki day care centres after Finnish and Swedish is Somali, followed by Russian, Estonian, Ara-bic, Kurdish, Albanian and English.

“Different languages and cultural backgrounds bring a new perspective to the Finnish upbringing tradition,” NinaOnufriew says, “and our goal is to learn about other cultures from the children and their parents through co-operation with families.”

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Day care in Helsinki seeks to provide all children with equal opportunities for learning and participation. “Language barriers can be overcome with gestures and by means of art and creativ-ity,” Onufriew continues. “Chil-dren usually learn Finnish surprisingly quickly.”

She sees the varied cultural backgrounds of day care cus-tomers as a great source of rich-ness and possibilities, commenting, “A multitude of languages and cultures becomes a natural part of children’s ordi-nary life. Children who encoun-ter cultural variety learn to deal with it and can utilize their mul-ticultural skills in the work life and throughout their lives. I believe that a multicultural real-ity will be a natural part of our communities in Finland, as it already is in other societies such as those in North America.”

As revealed by surveys, both Finnish parents and parents of

foreign-born backgrounds in Fin-land give a high approval rating to the upbringing of their chil-dren in day care. They put an especially high value on safety, confidentiality and respect for Translated by Johanna Lemola

the privacy of families in day care.

Helsinki day care centres hire many workers with multicultural backgrounds. The centres even face shortages of formally quali-

fied multicultural staff. Staff are often trained through appren-ticeship agreements. All training is in Finnish.

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“Spektr is the Russian word for spectrum,” explains founder and editor-in-chief EilinaGusatin-sky about the paper of the same name. “The name well reflects both the content and the read-ers. Our key principle was diver-sity when we founded Spektr in 1998. Today that principle is even more important, and we seek to reflect the whole spec-trum of opinions, phenomena and people.”

Spektr reaches many other nationalities than the roughly 54,000 Russian speakers in Fin-land today. “Our readers include Somalis, Bulgarians and even Finns, who have studied and lived in Russia.”

SpektrhassomethingforallRussianspeakersinFinland.Themonthlytabloidreachesupto75,000readers.

Eilina Gusatinsky and

SpEkTrByPäiviArvonen SpEkTr

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NeweditionsdisappearquicklySpektr has informative, educa-tional and entertaining content. The Kaleidoscope section is an important information channel for the more than 80 Russian associations and organizations in Finland. The paper informs readers about new laws con-cerning immigrants. Many arti-cles deal with Finnish culture and society. There is a calendar of events and a separate Hel-sinki section.

An interesting angle to Finnish history is provided by Russian families who have lived in Fin-land for three centuries and retained the Russian language. Gusatinsky comments, “They reflect a major challenge today: how the children of Russian speakers can retain the lan-guage. This is a popular topic in Spektr.”

Cultural content and everyday information in russian

Half of Spektr’s readers live in the capital region. The paper is available at many places in the region, including the Caisa Cul-tural Centre, as well as in other cities. The paper is so popular that new editions disappear quickly. Many readers subscribe to the paper to make sure they get it.

“Finland’sofficialRussian”Gusatinsky was born in Moscow and moved to Finland for work in 1990. She has been called

Finland’s official Russian.“That title seemed odd to me

at first, because my mother moved from Finland to Russia to study in 1958 and met my father, whose has Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish roots,” she explains. “We later found out that my mother also has Russian ancestors, who moved to Finland in the 18th century.”

Gusatinsky founded Spektr with her brother VladimirGusatinsky. There are three other owners. The paper receives

its income from subscriptions and advertisement sales.

“We founded the paper when we realized that many Russian immigrants had lived in Finland for up to ten years without inte-grating into Finnish society,” Eilina Gusatinsky explains. “This is still reality for many immigrants.”

“We talk about integration, but it doesn’t happen.” She calls for open discussion on what kind of country we want Finland to be in 20–30 years.

“It would benefit the whole country if the Finnish State recruited immigrants. Now only the City of Helsinki seems to build the future wisely by employing immigrants and carry-ing out many good projects. These activities promote two-way integration and powerfully dissolve prejudices.”

Translated by Johanna Lemola

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Helsinki Info is a printed newspaper published by the City of Helsinki and distributed to all Helsinki households six times a year. Helsinki Info’s English Supplement resembles the main publication in format but is published online on the City Website, also six times a year.

Next issue 24.10.2011

Publisher: City of Helsinki www.hel.fi

Editor-in-Chief: Rita Ekelund Phone (+358 9) 310 36074 City of Helsinki, Communications P.O. Box 1 FI-00099 City of Helsinki, Finland Graphic design: Guassi Oy

Send us feedback: helsinki-info.palaute@hel.fi

InformationforallresidentsVirka Info telephone service (09) 310 11111 (Mon-Fri 9–15) and information point in the City Hall lobby, address Pohjoisesplanadi 11–13 (Mon–Fri 9–19, Sat–Sun 10–16). www.virka.fi

Info Bank is an online service aimed at immi-grants, offering information on Finnish society and life in Finland in 15 languages. The website also contains local information on Helsinki.www.infopankki.fi

Info kit

Do you want to subscribe to Helsinki Info English Supplement? Send your e-mail address to helsinki-info.palaute@hel.fi

Many art museums have been founded around the collec-tions of private art lovers. The collection of LeonardBäcksbacka, consisting of Finnish 20th century art, is the core of the collection of the Helsinki Art Museum.

The works in the exhibition In the gallery and at home are selected by the artist ViggoWallensköld. Featuring works by beloved painters like Tyko

– Art Collectors Bäcksbacka and Hasán

Sallinen,EllenThesleff and JalmariRuokokoski, the exhibi-tion will also include a selection of works from the collection of con-temporary art donated to the museum by KatriinaSalmela-Hasán and DavidHasán.

n Helsinki Art Museum Meilahti till November 27, open Tue–Sun 11–18.30, Tamminiementie 6

In the gallery

Two, 1982Painter: Leena Luostarinen

Spring (Wilderness Girl), 1935Painter: Ellen Thesleff

and at home

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