POLOKWANE – When I first saw her name, Pauliina Mapatha, I wondered about her heritage as the spelling of her name is uncommon. I phoned to set up an interview and as I spoke to Pauliina, I realised she is not from South Africa.
“I grew up in Finland and therefore are Finnish,” she explains.
Pauliina came to South Africa in 2002 to work for the Department of Agriculture in Limpopo as a field advisor . It was a two-year contract.
“During my high school years and afterwards while studying, I became very much aware of what is right and wrong. I studied geography but focused primarily on developing countries and human interests. Human rights also interested me a lot and I realised that to be successful in my career I will have to work in a developing country… So when I got the opportunity to come to South Africa, I grabbed it with both hands. Professionally it was a very good choice.”
Halfway through her stay, she met her husband and got married. “After my two-year contract ended, I first went on maternity leave and then worked as a consultant on an environmental project. Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism Limpopo (Ledet) funded it and I assisted in preparing business plans.”
During this time period, Pauliina also did contract work for a Finnish Non-government organisation Gender Booklet as well as provincial government Information Communication Technology (ICT) programmes and business developments.
“Then I was being contracted directly to those companies for eight years. At some point, I decided I wanted to become more hands-on with NGO-programs. I wanted to roll my sleeves up and actually go to projects.”
So in 2018, as a parent of Mitchell House’s Parent Association, Pauliina became part of the Legacy Foundation at the School. Read more about the foundation in this week’s Bonus.
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She says that she goes back to Finland quite often to visit her family and apart from spending time with her family, she loves doing pilates and reading.
