The Olympian Who Started A Movement
Anni Vuohijoki had just returned to her home in Helsinki from the Winter Olympics in Beijing when Russia invaded Ukraine. “It reminded me of the annexation of Crimea,” says the doctor-in-training and member of the Finnish national team’s support staff. “They did that after the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.”
Anni, 33, feels deeply connected to Ukrainians. “I have Ukrainian friends through my sport,” says Anni, who competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics in weight lifting. “And we Finns grew up with a constant fear of our big neighbour.” Finland and Russia share a 1300-kilometre border.
On Sunday, February 27, three days after the invasion, Anni and her husband Sami Köngäs decided that they would offer their cabin as a home for refugees. While chatting online with her friend Laura Peippo in Lapland, she wondered what else they could do. “We decided that if we could get a bus and drivers for free, we could deliver supplies and bring back a group of refugees.”
Anni is well known in Finland, and when she tweeted out their plan, journalists immediately called with questions. Aid organisations and even a former Finnish foreign minister offered information and help. Careful planning was key.
“We asked a Ukrainian organisation what they needed, and they sent us a list of medical supplies, food and other goods,” says Anni.
Meanwhile, Laura used her network to draw up a list of refugees who wanted to come to Finland and who had local contacts to help them and to take them in.
“It was total chaos,” says Anni. But six days after she sent her tweet, the women had identified 56 refugees – enough to fill the bus – and secured permits to transport supplies to Warsaw, Poland. On Sunday, March 6, Anni and Laura, along with three volunteer drivers, boarded a donated bus in Helsinki and set off for the ferry to Tallinn, Estonia.
When they dropped off the supplies at the medical distribution centre in Warsaw, they saw firsthand how desperately they were needed. “As soon as a truck arrived that was headed for Ukraine, it was loaded up and gone. I don’t think our cargo was there for more than 25 minutes,” Anni recalls.
Next stop was Warsaw’s railway station, where the 56 refugees had been told to gather between 4pm and 6pm. “We weren’t sure if everybody would show up, but they did.”
The bus arrived in Helsinki on Tuesday, March 8.
The initiative has generated enormous publicity in Finland – which is exactly what Anni and Laura wanted. “Finland has a culture of helping silently, you don’t advertise it. We wanted to openly show that we can all do something,” Anni says.
And it has worked. The women have been overwhelmed with messages from people who want to help.
Anni remains in touch with one of the refugees, a young student named Dana, and has even offered her a job at her gym in Helsinki.
“She was alone on the bus,” Anni recalls. “Her boyfriend stayed behind in Ukraine to fight. It’s heart wrenching.”
It all started after Wojcik posted an appeal on Facebook. Soon there were many offers of help