Ministry of Social Affairs and Health opened their website in Russian
The Ministry of Social Affairs has today opened their website in Russian as part of the current website revision. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is the first Finnish Ministry publishing a website especially for Russian speaking people who are looking for information. The website contains basic information on all topics under the responsibility of the Ministry and data about the Ministry.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health prepares and implements legislation and projects affecting people's daily lives. The following issues, for example, fall under the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health: supporting health and wellbeing, healthcare and social services, social benefits, occupational safety and health, and issues of equality. The Ministry wishes that their website also serves linguistic minorities. A considerably large number of people living in Finland have their background in Russia, and the Ministry wants to serve them in their own language.
According to Eeva Larjomaa, Director of Information and Communication at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Ministry has provided material in Russian even earlier when, for example, child welfare matters have become a topic of discussion. The website content now covers the whole field of responsibilities of the Ministry. The website content will also be further developed. Larjomaa says that providing information on the website in other languages too needs to be considered because there are a large number of asylum seekers in Finland now.
This website revision has been designed and carried out during this autumn by Katarina Vesikko, a University Trainee with Ingrian background.
Vesikko has heard from her friends how hard it can be to learn Finnish. She states that the new website should serve people as well as possible when they search for information on the Ministry website. Those people can be journalists, people arriving in Finland for work, and in particular people who live permanently in Finland and speak Russian as their own language.
According to Vesikko, it was a large but motivating project to build up the website because the concrete results of the work can now be seen as better service.
Inquiries:
Eeva Larjomaa, Director of Information and Communication, tel. 0295 163 132