Photographer: Aleksi Kokora – Editor: Sems Erik
When we see and hear about successful experiences that represent young generations in their best light, reflecting their roles in moving society toward a better place and creating an impactful imprint, we cannot help but celebrate their efforts and see them make the most prominent headlines.
The experience of VAPU, which directs its services to the elderly in an unprecedented step with young multicultural people under the age of 21 that embody diverse practical experiences and a lot of high humanitarian spirits, has made them an integrated team that takes steady steps in the world of entrepreneurship in Finland.
Diverse team
We were a part of the JA Company Program, where we were to create a business from scratch and compete in Europe’s biggest youth entrepreneurial program. At the beginning, we were not a part of the same company, but our teachers put us together later and that’s when the magic started happening.
VAPU represents four nationalities and cultures, which is a great strength as we can bring many perspectives to each conversation.
Photographer: Aleksi Kokora – Editor: Sems Erik
Hamid Amrijev
Hamid Amrijev, the 19-year-old Chief Operating Officer of VAPU, hails from Chechnya but was born in Sweden due to the war in Chechnya at the time. Despite his birth in Sweden, he has spent most of his life in Hämeenlinna, Finland. He’s quite a down-to-earth person. He enjoys life’s simple pleasures and feels deeply grateful, aware that we all live on a giant rock floating in space.
When asked about his interests, Hamid eagerly talks about music, a significant part of his life – he listens to it, works with it, walks to it, relaxes to it, and even tries to create it. Additionally, he enjoys martial arts, having trained in various styles from judo to boxing throughout his life.
Lastly, here’s a self-quote from him:
“You didn’t go through all that for nothing.”
Photographer: Aleksi Kokora – Editor: Sems Erik
Eetu Hautala
One of the three Co-Founders and the Chief Marketing Officer of VAPU, Eetu Hautala is a 19-year-old Finnish young man. He has lived all his life in one city, which is Hämeenlinna. He loves this country and is proud to be Finnish, though living in a single city for 19 years straight can be a bit boring and all, but he is not complaining at all.
Although he owns a very calm personality, he is also energetic as he loves human interactions and meeting new people. He also needs his own time and his own space to cool down and charge up. He represented himself in a joking way as, “you see how difficult and weird I am, hahah.”
All jokes aside, Eetu is a very nice guy, and he would like to say that he has a good sense of humor. In fact, he likes to use it a lot, sometimes to the point that it annoys people…as he said “especially when I use sarcasm, that’s something even I know I for certain do too much.” Not only is he a big fashion guy, but he also loves listening to music.
Photographer: Aleksi Kokora – Editor: Sems Erik
About the CEO
Joseph Munyandamutsa, a 20-year-old, is the CEO of VAPU and hails from Rwanda. He enjoys listening to audiobooks, self-education, and spending time with his family. He obtained a Basic Vocational Degree in Business (Merkonomi) from Ammattiopisto Tavastia in Hämeenlinna and is also the CEO of CICOVENT, a company that organizes events for young people.
Joseph’s Journey in Entrepreneurship
My journey as an entrepreneur started a bit earlier than 2023. It actually started in 2017 when I started my career as a music artist. Acting as my own manager, I did all the outreaching, promotion, and performing by myself. Through music, I got my introduction to the business world. Music didn’t work out, but at the beginning of 2023, I decided to try the traditional entrepreneur path. I sought different ways to make money online, and I ended up opening my first dropshipping store in January, but later shut it down and decided to fully focus on VAPU. In June, I Co-Founded a company called CICOVENT, where we are determined to entertain the youth of our city with activities that unify different age groups and cultures. In July, we organized our first event, which was a football tournament where eight self-formed youth football teams competed for the HÄMPTON CHAMP 2023-Title. The winner of the first ever HÄMPTON CHAMP was a youth team called Katuma FC.
I grew up with a multilingual and multicultural background, interacting with different languages and cultures. I also moved to Finland while I was still young. This, I believe, has caused me to become someone who adapts very easily and gets along with everyone. The Finns have treated me as one of their own, which is why I try to show my gratitude whenever I can.
Finland to me
I see Finland as a land of opportunity. It all depends on what you are seeking. If you are seeking problems and faults in Finnish society, you will surely find some, but if your eyes are seeking opportunities, then you will find an abundance of opportunities in Finland!
From my perspective, successful localization in Finnish society involves understanding and respecting the Finnish culture and values, as well as being a law-abiding and hard-working citizen. It is as simple as that.
In order to get integrated in Finland, you need to be able to adapt. Of course, it depends on where you come from, but Finland is a pretty unique country in the sense that it provides you with all the tools you need to succeed. However, the same fact can also be detrimental and cause you to be lazy. As long as you are a law-abiding and hard-working citizen, you will be well-integrated into Finland and wherever you choose to go.
And definitely! Finland has treated us very well. It has provided lots of help and support, from our school to our community, city, and country.
Perspectives
To me, owning a business as an immigrant is almost the same as my colleague Eetu, who’s not an immigrant. The difference may be in that some people may have prejudices due to me being an immigrant, but that is normal as I’m not a native in this country. I have not personally experienced any discrimination aimed towards me as an immigrant businessman. I feel like we immigrants often have too much of a victim mentality. We often want to believe that the reason why we weren’t picked for a job, didn’t get good grades, or didn’t become successful is due to the fact that we are immigrants rather than the simple fact that we just did not perform good enough. I’m not disregarding the fact that there is racism in Finland, but from my experience, if you are a disciplined, hard-working and law-abiding citizen, then you will do more than fine in Finland.
VAPU, the Back stage
Everything began when we started up a company. We wanted a company that focused on customer service. As we explored our options, we realized that there are lots of activities for the young, but for the elderly? Not much. We then started to participate in dialogues with friends who either had worked or were working with the elderly, and they told us that the life of the elderly in Finland is actually pretty dull, especially in retirement homes. In many retirement homes, the employees have so much work that they simply don’t have enough time to entertain their residents. We wanted to fix this by creating a phone app, which would serve as a helping hand for people to order activities to the elders. The phone app has two functions. 1. A retirement home manager can enter their retirement home into our service, and they will be able to see which activities are available and order activities to their retirement home through our phone app. 2. The casual young person with any skills will be able to sign themselves up into our service as a worker. In doing so, they share which skills they have and what activities they would like to do. We interview them and after being accepted, they are able to take gigs in retirement homes. The retirement homes pay us for the activities, and we pay for the workers’ salaries. The prototype of the app was made by Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.
Accidentally, but it’s happened
As I previously mentioned, we started our company as a part of a school course, but the desire to go beyond the school course awoke when we were put into the same team. It felt like when Simon Cowell put One Direction together. In the beginning, we just wanted to finish the course. Little by little, we began to feel the desire to continue. In February, we decided to become serious and pursue it with full intent. Now that the JA program is over, we are in the process of rebranding our company from the name to the logo.
I can say that we see ourselves in the next five years as successful entrepreneurs. Our company is widely used in Finland and Europe. We see ourselves pursuing other ventures in the entrepreneurial world and being part of other businesses.
The culture, Mater
Joseph and Hamid come from cultures where the elderly are highly respected and taken care of. Finland, on the other hand, seems to be the contrary. We could not imagine having our own parents in retirement homes where they do the same thing every day and having no one visit them. We wanted to create a meaningful impact on society by helping the elderly and connecting the young and the old generations.
We want to raise awareness about how much better we could treat the elderly in our country. We want to connect the young with the old; get the young to spend time with elders and hear all the wisdom they have to give, and on the other hand, give the elderly the joy of spending time with young people and sharing their knowledge with them. We could grow so much as a society by connecting the young with the elderly.
Winning the title
The JA Company program competition is a competition where over 390,000 young entrepreneurs all over Europe compete for the Company of The Year title in their country and Europe as a whole. In April, during the Finnish Finals at the Mall of Tripla, there were over 60 companies. The companies had to pitch their ideas to investors, judges, teachers, and other young entrepreneurs. The competition also included setting up an expo stand and presenting the company to anyone who came to the stand. And among the 60 companies, we won the best title.
Winning the title of JA (Junior Achievement) Company of The Year of Finland was a great achievement. The title also brought recognition to our city Hämeenlinna, and we’ve been part of many news articles in our local newspapers as a result. Not only did the win give us credibility, but it also created expectations. A lot of people are rooting for us, and we must do our best to bring this vision of ours to reality!
Behind our success
We’ve had lots of help from our local school Ammattiopisto Tavastia and the city of Hämeenlinna. We also must thank Jarkko Savijoki and Seija Kajaala, the two teachers from our school that were responsible for bringing us together, which consequently led to us forming the idea and company. They have also supported us in every step of the way, and they are still our valuable mentors. Our city Hämeenlinna has also played a big part in our success. We’ve also gotten lots of business counseling from senior entrepreneurs in our city.
