A Japanese woman named Suomi helps Nepalese girls get an education
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By Katri Simonen
A small Japanese girl once played alone in a large forest in the Helsinki suburb of Pohjois-Haaga and read the stories of author Zacharias Topelius. Her parents had given her the name Suomi (Finland in Finnish) in Japan, because they loved Finland and studied Finnish as a hobby.
The girl's father had unexpectedly been given a job as a doctor in Finland, and the small family moved here. The intended one-year stay stretched into ten whole years.
Now, at the age of 48, Dr. Suomi Sakai is in Finland again. She is working as the head of a UNICEF Nepal office, telling people about the literacy programme for Nepalese girls - in fluent Finnish. The project is supported by the Finnish government.
In 1968 the Sakai family moved back to Japan, but they kept their ties to Finland. The mother, an author of children's books, translated Finnish folk tales into Japanese. These were then published in a children's newspaper in Tokyo. The daughter read books by Anni Swan and Putkinotko by Joel Lehtonen.
"The change was huge to me. There was much more freedom in Finland, young people had freedom of expression and choice. In Japan everyone works according to the same formula", she explains.
Under this formula girls got a good education, but still primarily hoped to get married and stay at home.
Sakai wanted to work. She studied medicine and wrote her doctoral thesis on public health in the United States.
She has worked with UNICEF in a number of countries, including China and Malawi and, since 2002, in Nepal.
Nepal is a difficult country. The difference in the social status of the different castes, as well as between men and women, are as steep as the Himalayan slopes.
"As a group, girls and women are beneath the men. How is it possible to make them believe even in themselves?" the doctor asks.
Furthermore, the Maoist rebellion has two-thirds of the country in its grip, which makes working in the area more difficult and more expensive, for security reasons.
UNICEF has nevertheless been able to work there, setting up morning and evening schools for the children of the pariahs.
One year's education for a Nepalese girl costs 12 euros.
The teaching is two hours a day for two years.
In that time the children advance two or three grade levels, thanks to child-friendly teaching methods and teachers who, contrary to the norm, respect the children.
"It is important that the children come to one place, get to be children at least for two hours a day, meet each other, and learn life skills."
"We also want them to understand the significance of education", Suomi Sakai adds.
As head of the Nepal office, Sakai is mainly responsible for the literacy project. She says that in the last three years 73 000 children have been taught how to read and write. Of them 65 % are girls.
To her own 8- and 10-year-old children Suomi reads Tove Jansson's Moomintroll stories.
"In English", she adds, with a note of sadness in her voice.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 12.8.2004
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 17.8.2004 - THIS WEEK |
 A Japanese woman named Suomi helps Nepalese girls get an education |
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