‘Ihan Vapaasti Mä!’- a Free Being Me story from Finland

To celebrate all the amazing work that our Member Organisations have been doing to bring Free Being Me to girls and boys all over the world, throughout December we will be sharing success stories from MOs who have benefitted from the Free Being Me fund. We interviewed The Guides and Scouts of Finland to see how FBM has had an impact:

 

How has the Free Being Me fund benefited your MO?

Without the fund, we would really have struggled to carry out the program. The fund was used to translate the three activity packs into Finnish. We first tried to do the translation by volunteers but the task was too big, and so with the funding we were able to use two professional translators- see our website to download the packs: www.freebeingme.partio.fi/

 

What has been the reaction to Free Being Me?

Feedback from our members has been really positive! We also found that the programme is relevant to boys and works well in a co-educational setting. We will continue to promote FBM until next summer in our national jamboree, where every participant will have the opportunity to do FBM activities.

 

Why is the issue of body confidence important in your country?

We consider that the Finns are just like the youth in Europe or on the opposite side of the globe. Media does affect the ways we see ourselves and puts a huge pressure on how we should look. We have noticed that even adults have serious body confidence issues, not to mention the youth. The campaign is very timely in our country and the message to take action is very important. I am sure that the program makes everyone who takes part to think seriously about how much we let the Image Myth affect us.