Ulla Alanko’s special love for Ghana and Ghanaian community in Finland

UUlla (left), with the then Gha­na’s Ambassador to Denmark, H. E. Amerley Ollennu Awua-Asamoa. Picture by Kwame Afreh

Today, I share with readers something interesting about Ms. Ulla Alanko, the former Honorary Consul of Ghana in Helsinki. Ms. Alanko is currently retired and is thus an Honorary Consul Emerita.

What I share here is largely about the love this great Finnish woman has for Ghana and the immense support she has been giving in diverse ways to Ghanaian migrants in Finland.

Most Ghanaian migrants here look to her as a mother figure and affectionately refer to her simply as Ulla.

Honorary Consul

The official appointment of Ms. Ulla Alanko as the Honorary Consul was signed on Decem­ber 29, 2006, by the then Foreign Minister, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, who is cur­rently the President of Ghana. Her work as Honorary Consul formally started in 2007.

Before then, Ulla had been working closely with the then Consul General, Mr. Dauda­Toure, as Ulla explained to me in a commu­nication in early 2020, just before my term ended as the President of the Ghana Union of Finland.

When Mr. DaudaToure unexpectedly died in 2002, the task thus fell on Ms. Alanko to step in and help serve Ghanaians in Finland. She followed in the late Toure’s footsteps to develop cooperation between Ghana and Finland.

The job also included working closely with Ghana’s Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, at that time (in 2018, Finland came under the Ghana Embassy in Oslo, Norway). There are also levels of cooperation between different universities in Finland and those in Ghana, business and investment possibilities, as well as visits to Ghana by staff from Ministries in Finland and from Ghana to Finland.

Ulla has worked in many institutions, for example, the University Hospital in Helsinki (Administration). Her last work experience was at the City of Helsinki Administration, where she was the Senior Planning Officer from 1989 until 2014, when she retired.

Her visits to Ghana

Ulla first visited Ghana in 1995 and, from then on, engaged in many activities in Ghana for about a year.

She saw the cooperation with the Accra City administration and the Trades Union Con­gress, something that had been on the Honor­ary Consul’s agenda since the year 1995.

The Ghana Consulate started cooperation with the Ghana Trade Union Congress, where it worked closely with the General Secretary, Mr. Christian Appiah-Agyei, and also with Mr. Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Mr. Kofi Asamoah and Dr. Anthony Yaw Baah.

Cooperation projects

In 2002, 2003, and 2005, the Honorary Con ­sulate started cooperation projects with the Trade Union Congress in Ghana. The projects were in cooperation with the Trade Union Solidarity Centre in Finland, for example, on repairing and consulting with the Ghana Trade Union Congress and others. A Finnish group of experts also worked together with their Gha­naian counterparts in the Ghana Trade Union Congress. The Finnish group was made up of 20 members of the Trade Union who had differ­ent working experiences from various parts of Finland.

The programmes focused on education, safety at work, working conditions, women in working life, etc. The cooperation programmes between Ghana and Finland have continued over the years.

The coop­eration was successful, and on June 1, 2010, the Trade Union Solidarity Centre in Fin­land opened its office in Accra, the second in Africa. Unfor­tunately, the office is now temporarily closed.

In 2008, the then President of Finland, Mrs. Tarja Halonen, was one of the main speakers at the four-day UNC­TAD- Congress in Accra, which Ms. Alanko attended too, from April 20–23. Later, Ulla, as the Honor­ary Consul of Ghana in Helsinki, arranged a visit to the Ghana Trades Union Congress on behalf of President Halonen to fulfill her wish to strengthen cooperation between Finland and Ghana.

President Halonen had been working as a lawyer in the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions before she became the first female P resident in Finland, from 2000 to 2012. The meeting in Accra gave hope about the possibility of strengthening the relationship between Ghana and Finland, as well as between the Trade Unions of both coun­tries.

The Honorary Consul position is also a nominat­ed member of the Consul Corps Board in Finland, from the 196 foreign consulates in Finland.

Retirement and Honour

Ulla retired from active work as an Honorary Consul in early 2020. In a speech at a send-off event for her, Ulla thanked the Ghana State, the Ghana Embassy in Copenhagen and the Ghanaian community in Finland for the “valuable possibility to work for the Ghana State and for their people in both countries”.

At the time, there were over 1,700 Ghanaians living in Finland. Ulla served the many people who approached her to help solve their immigration and other problems. “The work with Ghanaians and with Ghana Union Finland has always been very close and intense,” Ulla often said.

In 2018, the Ghana Union Fin­land honoured Ulla in recog­nition of her work. A citation presented to her read thus: “For so many years now, you have been of immense help to Ghana­ian immigrants in Finland. Your friendship and great love for Ghana and Gha­naian immigrants in Finland are obvious for all to see.

“We acknowledge your selfless­ness, passion and dedication to the Union, and feel privileged to be associated with you. The Gha­na Union Finland cherishes your zeal and enthusiasm to help and actively participate in activities involving the Ghanaian immigrant community in Finland. Your strong support for a solid Ghana-Finland relationship is a shining example for us all. Thank you”.

By Perpetual Crentsil

[The writer lectures at the

University of Helsinki in Finland]

Email: perpetualcrentsil@yahoo.com