A Spanish Girl in Finland

“Advocacy” is other important area to know for people that are interested in social services. It is defined as “advancing government reforms and changed practice through citizen empowerment and mobilisation” or according to a World Vision, “advocacy is the promotion of justice through changes in policies, systems, structures, practices and attitudes, citizen mobilization and education about human and child rights”. What does it mean? It means that according to this point of view, to help people is necessary to give them voice, to teach them their rights and to help them to organize themselves according to an objective. Citizens are active people that may act to change their situation (as community work), so if volunteers and social workers help them by teaching them their rights and giving them strategies to improve their skills, they can change the policy and their situation. Its main idea is that social workers must give voice to disadvantaged groups, and must teach them how th...

As you already know because of my last entry, the “community work” is a way of working focussed in the environment and the context of the people, because its main idea is that a person have a problem because It is not adapted correctly to the context, and we can’t understand the behaviour of a person without their circumstances. So, as in other countries, in Spain, community work has the goal to work with the environment of a target group, to screen what is the problem, what things can change and how, and to let the people that live in this environment to act and to take part in this change. People can’t be passive patients; they have to work in their own change, so they have to learn the specific skills and knowledge to participate in their own change. In that way, the environment improves and the people that live in it can improve and grow up too. So, the main idea is to screen the problem in the environment, change it and teach citizens how to participate in this change. C...

In the next entries, I’ll share with you some interesting things that I’ve learnt in my lessons of Social Services in TUAS. This entry is aimed to speak about Community Work, a very useful and important topic to understand if you are interested in projects and activities related with social services. Community Work is a way to practice social services whose main goal is to improve individual condition through improving community conditions. Community Work is according with the idea that the behaviour and the situation of a person depends not only of his biology, genetic and personality; it depends specially of his environment and community. So, Community Work is focussed in working with communities to improve their situation. How do they get it? The first step is to screen the main problem of the community. Then, the important thing is to think about how we can solve this problem, what does the community need; and then, give the people of the community tools to change their e...

During my stay in Finland, I had the opportunity to participate in many projects thanks of Turku University of Applied Sciences. One of them was a project offered by “Multaa ja Mujuloita”, an association that organizes activities for children, to teach them sciences and social skills in a nature environment. This association is located in an area with small cottages, where children play, do activities, learn how to do gardening and take care of the nature. I had the pleasure to organize a new project to this association, and it had the main goal to connect children with elderly people. Me and other three Finnish girls made a schedule full of activities where elderly people and children can learn from each other. I think it was so beautiful! In my opinion, these type of associations are so useful in the society of nowadays. Children are always playing with computers and videogames, and they need to have strong networks and learn from the nature! I think that this experience wa...

During these months in Finland, I had the opportunity to do many cool things and to live very funny and amazing experiences. One of them was to visit a Primary School in Turku, to speak with the students in English. Turku University of Applied Sciences gave me the opportunity to be “English teacher” in Hannunniitun Koulu two days, and it was amazing! It helped me to be more confident speaking in English, now I know that I can do everything I want! Me and other three students met with Krista Paavola, the English teacher of this school, and she was so kind! She told us that we were totally free to speak and teach the children, and she made me feel as one more. I spoke with eight groups of six children more or less, from 3th, 4 th , 5 th and 6 th grade, and they were so kind! At first, they were a bit shy, but we had to speak together 40 minutes, so with time, they were more confident and they spoke so much! They had a very good level of English. When the activity ended an...

The High School Graduation is something very special for all students. It means the end of a step and the start of a new life, full of new and difficult decisions about your future. So, it is something that students love to celebrate, but the celebration is different in each country! In Spain we celebrate it, but it is not a big celebration as in other places. We have a big ceremony in the high school, where teachers, families and friends are invited, and then the students go to a restaurant to have dinner and have fun. It is great! One month ago, I had the opportunity to go to a student graduation in Naantali Lukio, the High School of Naantali, and it was amazing! They celebrated the Prom in the gym of their High School, and they did many beautiful dances. It was like in the movies! One of the students told us that they receive lessons of dancing for this celebration. Cool! We had the opportunity to speak with some students and they explained us that before the big day, ...

These days, I have been thinking about my stay here, and about how quickly the things can change. As I said the entry before, “coronavirus” has changed the life of all the world in some days, and it is useful to value the things you have. Now, if I reflect about my life in Finland, I can say that these two months I’ve been very happy. I’ve had everything I like: friends, very interesting lessons, an amazing practice placement and an amazing routine. Now, everything is different: my lessons and my practical placement have been cancelled, so now I only can learn online; and most of my friends are now in their home countries, and I didn’t have the opportunity to say them goodbye. With these anecdotes I want to say that everything can change in a couple of seconds, so let me to tell you one tip: enjoy, please. Enjoy your friends, your family and your daily experiences. Every day, when you wake up, enjoy your day as it would be the last, because we don’t know the future, so we mus...