Better living conditions keep Ingrian elderly at home

Finnish Villa Inkeri association helps Russia’s Ingrian senior citizens

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By Jussi Konttinen
     
      "Service here is very good. It is clean, there is a sauna, and the food is no worse than at home. We are living like Finns", says 82-year-old Emilia Ahonen, describing her new home, the Villa Inkeri service home in Kikkeri in the Ingrian region of Russia.
     
Ahonen’s new home, which she got after recently moving from Siberia, is an apartment in a row house with a bathroom, an electric cooker and a wood-fired stove, as well as cosy rugs. But there is one shortcoming.
      "I need a closet to put all of those rags into", Ahonen says, pointing to the clothes folded on her bed.
      As is the case with many Ingrians (ethnic Finns, whose ancestors moved to the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland between modern St. Petersburg and the Estonian border in the 17th century when the area was under Swedish control), Ahonen was on the waiting list hoping to move to Finland as a "returning migrant".
      The Finnish Embassy gave her the go-ahead to move to Finland, but after she was unable to find a home, she got tired of waiting. When she saw the Villa Inkeri house, she decided to move there.
      The Finnish Villa Inkeri association began its service home operations in the Ingrian community of Kikkeri about ten years ago. Now the association has a service home for 24 residents, and two recently-built row houses. In addition, the association provides home assistance, and has sponsored repairs in the homes of 300 elderly Ingrians.
     
Those who have their homes refurbished must agree not to emigrate to Finland.
      "Our idea is to give the Ingrians help here, so that they would not need to move to Finland", says the association’s project head, architect Pentti Kärki.
      "Old people do not want to move to Finland, but if their homes are not in decent shape, and social welfare services do not work, they have no other choice."
      Villa Inkeri gets assistance from various sources, including a grant from the Slot Machine Association, and revenue from flea markets that they run. Some of the expenses of the service homes are paid out of local social welfare funds.
      There are six other homes for the elderly in the Ingrian region, but they were built with Finnish state financing, and are run by local social welfare authorities.
      Kärki sees education as a key to the future of the Ingrian region. At an adult education centre supported by Villa Inkeri, young people with Ingrian roots take language classes, and get vocational training in a number of fields, including construction, computers, and textiles.
     
"When a young Ingrian gets a good education in his or her home region, the life situation changes, and there are no social problems. Most of those who get training will find work in Russia, but nothing prevents those with the right professional and linguistic skills from seeking employment in Finland", says Kärki, who runs a number of courses in the construction field.
      Like many residents of the service house, Emilia Ahonen has lived a tough life. In 1942 her family was expelled from the Ingrian region to the Siberian town of Kiks on the coast of the Arctic Ocean. She spent 13 years there.
      In her old age she has visited Helsinki, and is now active in the Ingrian Church again.
      "On Sunday I will get to go to the Tyrö church in my home region", she says happily.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 22.4.2004

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: 22,000 on waiting list to move to Finland

JUSSI KONTTINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi.konttinen@hs.fi