Pharmacy employee, student Zana Abrashi
Zana Abrashi was 17 when she arrived in Finland with her family from Kosovo. She learnt the language fast and adapted easily to her new homeland. Today Abrashi studies business and works in a pharmacy.
The tragic events in Kosovo forced many Muslim Albanian families to leave their country behind. When Abrashi’s hometown of Mitrovica was split in two in 1992, the family fled to Finland and ended up at the refugee centre in Valkeala. Her family found a flat in Kouvola, and Zana Abrashi started school – in a low grade.
“We were poorly off, though I don’t remember suffering very much. By grade three at school I had learnt the language. My classmates did not treat me any differently. I was a blonde young girl and I spoke Finnish well.”
Afterwards Abrashi went to upper secondary school, took a year off, took temporary posts in schools, travelled the world, moved to Helsinki and began a business study course at college. In the early stages of the course she did some teaching work and sorted post.
“At the pharmacy I have learnt to work when it is busy.”
“I got word about a job at a pharmacy from my mother, who had happened to be chatting to a pharmacist who ran a pharmacy business. I was asked to contact them. When I did I got an interview and landed a job at the central pharmacy at the University of Helsinki.
Abrashi was instructed in the work of a pharmacy and its values. During the first three days there she worked under the supervision of an experienced employee and learnt to work the till and stock the shelves on her own.
Abrashi knows all about pharmacy logistics, she fetches prescription medicines from the stockroom when the pharmacy assistants ask her to, and brings them to the shop.
When she is studying Abrashi does one evening a week and one weekend a month. In the summer holidays she works full-time. There are a lot of employees at the University pharmacy, and the management is flexible about working hour arrangements.
“The working hours suit me fine. My studies don’t suffer because I don’t go to work every evening. If I have an examination when it is my evening shift, I can easily get someone to change with me in a large pharmacy like that one.”
Zana Abrashi is now 22 and her course at the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences has still 18 months to run. Afterwards she will stop working at the pharmacy and do something else.
“My special field is communications. I don’t know yet what sort of work I’ll do after I graduate, but my experience at the pharmacy will certainly be an advantage in my future occupation”.
Text and photograph: Anu Likonen, Jukka Vuolle and Nanni Akkola
The Ministry of Employment and the Economy