North Karelia Martha
District Association
Ms. Helena Puhakka-Tarvainen
Vice Chairperson
North Karelia Martha District Association, Finland
The Martha Organization
•
Founded in 1899, when the majority of Finnish families
were living in poverty and Finland was part of the Russian
Empire (autonomy)
•
Founders were well educated ladies, who saw that women
had a key role in educating their families and the future
generations in household skills
•
Martha was only one of the many educational
organizations established that time
•
Actions in North Karelia started already in 1899; North
Karelia Martha district association was founded 1907
• Politically independent
non-governmental
organization acting for
the well-being of Finnish
homes and families
• Raising awareness of
home economics
through the provision
of housekeeping
advisory
• Close cooperation with
other organisations
(authorities, communities,
schools, enterprises, etc.)
The North Karelia Martha district
association
• 130 Martha clubs and 13 activity groups
• 4100 members
• Local activities (Martha clubs and activity groups)
• Regional activities (courses, workshops)
• National events
• Study groups (peer-to-peer learning)
• Culture and Excursions
• International activities
Regional activities
•
Professionally trained home economics and
gardening consultants, 13 employees
•
Wide range of counselling for members and the
general public (courses, lectures, thematic
excursions, project activities, training materials,
journal, TV programmes, website, etc.)
•
Courses for special groups: e.g. children, aged
people, immigrants, people in financial
difficulties and people recovering from mental
health problems
•
Activities follow national thematic campaigns:
“Wellbeing by slowing down” in 2011–2013
Financing
• Ministry of Education
• Other ministries and trusts
• Membership fees
• Commercial activities
• Café Martha
• Martha HomeCare
• Room rental
• Items for sale
Beneficiaries
• Well-being of homes and families
• Activities for all age groups and both genders
• Activities both in countryside and cities
• Members and general public
• Helping individuals to improve the
management of everyday life
• Enhancing the viability of sparsely populated
areas
Life-long learning
• Mini-Martha diplomas
• Accredited study modules
(mastery keys, hobby badges, expert passes)
• Peer study groups
• Mentoring
• Hierarchical training (gardening Martha,
accountant-Martha, mushroom Martha, etc.)
• Learning by doing
Key factors for sustainability
• Traditionally deeply committed staff and
members
• Successful combination of voluntary work and
hired staff members
• Competitive working conditions
• Continuous recruitment of members
• Viable mentoring system
• Promotion and publicity, bright imago
• Continuous self-innovation
• Successful productization of counselling services
Key challenges for the success in the
future
• Maintaining the deep commitment of staff and
members
• Retaining the high degree of voluntary work
• Keeping the local activities hale and hearty
• Recruiting new members and establishing new
clubs and activity groups
• Getting new trustees to lead the activities and
take care of the finances
• Foreseeing the future trends
• Making the activities to correspond the wishes
and needs of the members
Transferability
• Way of counselling piloted in Russian
Karelia, Estonia and Africa thus far
• The organisational model could be
adopted anywhere; Martha clubs already
established in Russian Karelia,
international groups outside Finland
• Aims and goals relevant to all parts of
world, especially in developing
countries
• Structure of the study modules easily
transferable
Transferability
• Virtual solutions
• Mobile counselling
• Social media
Home economics and cooking
Gardening and environmental care
Household keeping skills
Organisational skills
International activities
Contact
North Karelia Martha
District Association
Pohjois-Karjalan Martat ry
Kauppakatu 23 b B 13
80100 Joensuu
Finland
tel. +358 10 838 5669
www.martat.fi
pohjois-karjala@martat.fi