By Enrique Tessieri
Rebecka Holm, 14, will get the Red Cross Award on the UN Day Against Racism on March 21 for her noteworthy example in denouncing racial harassment against her friends and herself, according to Swedish-language daily HBL.
The adolescent from Helsinki wrote a letter to the editor of HBL in January speaking out against racial harassment of her friends and herself. Her story received wide national attention.
“If Finland is now the most secure and stable country [in the world], why do people of [different] ethnic backgrounds get attacked every day?” she asked.
Holm said that she sees such attacks publicly take place several times a week. ” I am subjected to [those types of] attacks maybe once a week,” she wrote to HBL.
Holm is a good example of how the ever-worsening negative climate for immigrants and visible minorities in Finland has brought out the best in some members of our community.
Migrant Tales personally congratulates this brave adolescent for her very important example, which we hope will catch on.