| SINNI - Northern Resource Centre for Women and Girls |
|
|
| By Sandra Grötsch | ||||||
| Tuesday, 09 May 2006 | ||||||
 Photo by Sandra Grötsch Mrs. Ildikó Hámos, planner of SINNI’s
training and publicity, says  Photo by Sandra Grötsch In 2005 a law was passed in Finland to prevent direct and indirect discrimination based on gender, to advance equality between women and men, and to improve women’s position at work. But the situation of women at the labour market has not changed significantly, according to SINNI's staff.. The law and SINNI’s ideas should be actively applied and seen in local development. Equality and women’s position in society should be discussed and improved everywhere in Northern Ostrobothnia. Friday April 7th saw the first meeting to discuss how women’s status issues will fit into the regional council’s new three-year plan, which will be the basis for regional council work in coming years. Mrs. Hámos reports that around 30 people attended this meeting. Tytti Tuppurainen, spokesperson for the council, talked regional development, and Ilpo Tapaninen, another council member, spoke on regional strategy. Mrs. Hámos asserts that most people present at the meeting were interested in the position of immigrants and in improving their situation. The employment of immigrants is one of the most pressing issues for SINNI and the council because they want to increase equality, multiculturality, and internationality in the Oulu region. Therefore, new meetings will be organised to discuss urgent issues and agree on improvements. SINNI cooperates tightly with the administration and the employment office, with Walda, a youth centre, with EFA, the city’s Expatriate Family Adjustment project, and with the Toppelius centre for immigrants and refugees. Networking is the most important way to bring ideas to the level of concrete services and improvements. Currently, SINNI runs two projects, 'Startti' with the university of Oulu, and the 'Women’s Business Project' with the Employment and Economic Development (TE) centre. The purpose of Startti is to establish and develop the resource centre for women and girls. The Women’s Business Project, on the other hand, focuses on supporting female entrepreneurs and women planning to start their own business. Entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs can expect individual treatment of their ideas, plans, and business, so that development may take place immediately. The project offers training and education for business women. One important
organisation under SINNI’s umbrella is Monika, the Multicultural
Women’s Association founded in 1999 by Reet Nurmi. In 2004 two
students, having visited Mrs. Nurmi in Helsinki, established a section
in Oulu. Monika aims at preventing violence to women of any kind.
Besides domestic violence there are many other forms of violence that
immigrant women may face. Monika has a hotline to which women can call:
trained personnel will search for help from the right places. At this
moment the Oulu hotline helps in Finnish and English, but additional
languages will be added later this year. The Oulu Monika is applying
for funding and expecting to be able to start more activities in early
2007. SINNI’s office is located in the centre of Oulu. Interested persons are welcome to visit the office, get information from the Internet in English and Finnish, or join the mailing list with regular information about upcoming meetings and events. For more information please check out:
|
||||||
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
