A day care centre worker from Helsinki has been chosen as Refugee Woman of the Year. Mi Mi Po Hti and her family came to Finland from Myanmar 13 years ago after spending a year in a refugee camp in Thailand. They were accepted among the first group of Burmese under Finland's annual refugee quota in late 2000 and moved to Kuopio.
Hti has worked at a day-care centre in Helsinki for nearly a decade and teaches her native Burmese language and culture to a group of about 20 children.
"I've noticed that our culture has begun to disappear among the next generation," she says. "Children no longer respect their parents in the same way, because they speak Finnish better, so they can get by here better in some situations."
Now 50, she has two sons, one a high school student and one who works at a printing house. With conditions improving in the former Burma, Hti was able to return in January for her first visit in 18 years, spending most of her time with her 92-year-old mother.
Former winners enter politics
The annual honour is awarded by the Finnish Refugee Council, a UN-affiliated NGO that works to improve the basic rights of refugees and returnees.
Last year’s honouree was Malalai Rahim, an Afghan-born gynaecologist and mother of five.
The 2009 and 2010 winners, Kosovo Albanian Fatbardhe Hetemaj and Afghan-born Nasima Razmyar, are both members of the Helsinki City Council. The 2011 Refugee Woman of the Year, Somali nurse Saido Mohamed, has also run for political office and works as an advisor at the Finnish League for Human Rights.
