HS Home 22.1.2002 - The condom-fairy takes rubbers to Karelia

By Jarmo Pasanen

The condom-fairy (not related to the tooth-fairy) is a small winged character who flits around keeping an eye on amorously-inclined couples, checking that they pay due attention to matters of contraception and safe sex. The condom-fairy can be anywhere, peeking through bedroom windows, patrolling tents at rock festivals, watching the goings-on after sauna at the summer cottage.

If the lovers don’t make sure that the stiffy is wrapped in a Jiffy or other suitable casing, then the feisty condom-fairy bashes the parties with a rolling pin to soften things up a bit, give the female partner a headache, and put a swift stop to the malarkey.

Once upon a time the condom-fairy’s travels took it a long way to the east. There was a lot more work to be done there than at the usual round of summer rock festivals, and the poor condom-fairy got quite worn out wielding its rolling-pin. Nobody seemed to care a jot about the dangers of unprotected sex, or the risk of unwanted pregnancies.

And what place was this

, where the condom-fairy needed outside help?

“Russian Karelia. There is a crying shortage of contraceptives in Karelia. A condom there costs the equivalent of one Finnish markka (roughly EUR 0.16), but when the average net monthly earnings for someone like a schoolteacher in Karelia don’t rise above FIM 180 (EUR 30), it’s hardly surprising that young people in particular do not place contraceptives high on their shopping list”, says Sanna Rytkönen of the Babybag Association.

The Babybag Association

(which is also featured in the earlier article linked below) is a group founded by three young Finnish mothers, whose collection of items for infants and children in Karelia last year succeeded beyond expectations. Now the idea is to gather money for contraceptives in the hard-pressed Russian republic.

“In recent years the figures indicate as many as three abortions are carried out in Karelia for every live birth. The social problems that beset the region have also led to large numbers of unwanted and abandoned children. Our contraceptives campaign is a small step towards a situation where all babies being born would also be planned and wanted”, says Rytkönen.

The Condoms for Karelia campaign is being carried out in collaboration with the Family Planning Centre in the region’s capital Petrozavodsk (Petroskoi in Finnish), and with a similar centre in Sortavala. In addition to condoms, arrangements are made for women to be fitted with IUDs.

“Naturally the proceeds from the campaign will go where they are needed in their entirety, since there are hardly any costs involved in running a Net-based fund-raising exercise like this”, Rytkönen says. The online campaign runs until Valentine’s Day, and generous donations will be rewarded with small prizes as a token of thanks.

Finland’s interest

in the social problems of the Republic of Karelia is not solely based on geographical proximity, as the ethnic Karelians, representing a minority of the population these days, still speak a dialect of Finnish and are racially linked to the Finnish population.

A significant part of the region (including the city of Sortavala, pop. 20,000) belonged to Finland for the first 20 years of Independence, but was ceded to the Soviet Union following the Winter War of 1939-40. The area was then retaken during Finnish advances in the Continuation War of 1941-44, only to be surrendered once more - along with the narrow corridor of land leading to Pechenga (Petsamo in Finnish) on the shores of the Barents Sea - following the armistice concluded in Moscow in September 1944.

The map linked below indicates the parts of Finland ceded in 1944 and now either in the Karelian Republic or in Murmansk Province (the Pechenga Corridor). Sortavala, for example, is on the northern shore of the large lake (Lake Ladoga) that was partially inside Finland’s pre-1940 south-eastern borders.

Finland and the Republic of Karelia today share a lengthy land frontier that features one of the steepest income-gaps of any bordering on an EU member-state.

Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print in the Nyt weekly supplement, 18.1.2002