Hello! My name is Sanna Vesikansa and I am a candidate in the upcoming 2011 elections to the Finnish Parliament. I currently serve on both the Helsinki City Council and its Social Services Committee. I am 38 years old and mother to three young children.
I hold a Master’s Degree in Social Sciences and I work at the National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) as Coordinator of International Affairs.
My career in politics began a few years ago upon my return from Ethiopia, where I had been working for the United Nations. I wanted to generate change and address the inadequacies I saw in my hometown. The city of Helsinki was wealthier than it had ever been, but this could not be seen in critically important areas. Investments in health, children’s wellbeing and elderly services clearly yield a social and economic windfall from which we can all benefit. I feel that the proper administration of these services is one of the most important tasks of local authorities.
Background
I was born in 1972 in Bonn, Germany, but I returned to Finland with my family already at six months of age. My childhood was spent with my two brothers enthusiastically exploring the wooded areas near our home in the Helsinki district of Pakila. I have since lived in many different places: in the Lassila and Kallio districts of Helsinki and in several cities abroad, including Modesto California, Berlin and Addis Ababa. Now I have a family of my own and we have settled back in Pakila, near the Pirkkola park areas of my childhood.
I am a graduate of the University of Helsinki, where I studied sociology. Over the years I have worked as a researcher, journalist, and teacher. The last ten years of my life have been devoted to promoting international cooperation in the field of health care and social services. Two years at a United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) office in Ethiopia taught me many things about multicultural collaboration, a rare commodity in Finland.
As a Helsinki native, I was surprised when I fell in love with a farmer’s son from Heinola and suddenly found myself driving a tractor and bailing hay. I doubt I will ever live in the countryside (I will more likely end up back in Kallio someday), but the Haapaniemi area of Heinola will always be a special place for me and my family.
A mother of three small children has little leisure time. Fortunately, I can still do some of my favourite activities – hiking, skiing and biking – with my sons. An excess of evening meetings has made me an infrequent member of my book club. Perhaps there will be a time in my life, somewhere in the distant future, when I will be able to exercise and see theatre performances and films more regularly.
