Vanhempainliitto -Finnish Parents’ League

(Speech for candidacy as member of the board)

Hello everyone!

My name is Silvia, and besides being the mother of a first grader, I am an immigrant in Finland, the CEO of a healthcare company, and I am a Humanitarian expert of the Red Cross and a volunteer of Mothers in Business.

I am truly excited to be among people who share a passion for parent involvement. If I’m honest, me being here today is nothing short of a miracle with the existing barriers to parent involvement, especially when you speak little Finnish.

Precisely because of this, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and influence the Finnish Education system. As I see Vanhempainliitto as the voice of parents in Finland.

I have been very active in parent groups since my child started going to daycare. I was worried that in a daycare where 60% to 90% of the children came from non Finnish speaking homes, the Finnish language teacher position had been vacant for over a year and we know children need good Finnish skills to succeed in school. So I became active and together with other parents, we reached Helsinki city to solve this problem and get more support for the school and daycares in Kannelmäki.

Now, you know this is not an issue only in Kannelmäki, in some areas, like Vantaa, one in four people speak a foreign language as their native language. One in four. Therefore it is a deep issue that also affects the composition of the staff in daycares and schools. Multilingual and multicultural environments bring advantages, but also challenges that should be acknowledged.

I would like to help Vanhempainliitto identify and remove obstacles to enable more parent participation as the experience and exposure that I have gives me the capacity to do so. For example, on one hand, we can help existing parent associations in schools to reach out to parents who speak little Finnish, and on the other hand, we can help schools that don’t have a parent association to create one. Areas with a high percentage of migrant population are more likely not to have a parent association in the school, as is the case of Kannelmäki school.

I’m hoping to push forward these ideas with you all. Thank you.