Whilst working and studying, Anu had 3 daughters, now age 30, 28 and 22.

At present, while deployed as a Finnish secondee at EUPOL COPPS as Senior Police Advisor in Training, Anu is about to finish another master’s degree in security and risk management criminology at the University of Leicester, in the UK.

EUPOL COPPS is not the first international mission for Anu, as she consecutively worked in   international missions as of 2014. She served in Afghanistan (EU and GIZ/German cooperation), Liberia (United Nations) and Somalia (EUCAP Somalia).

Asked “Why EUPOL COPPS?” at this stage of her personal and professional path, Anu recalls that this very Mission was the first she ever applied for in 2012. “I was the second-best candidate” says Anu, explaining that she opted for Afghanistan, to later discover that the selected competitor for Palestine did not go in the end. Therefore, when recently a possibility materialised to join EUPOL COPPS it felt for Anu like closing a circle, so she applied for the position she now covers, explains Anu.

Another reason for joining EUPOL COPPS, continues Anu, is the fact that she is “a person constantly working on self-development and self-education, passionate about history”, always eager to see with her own eyes  the situation on the ground in Palestine, which she read about for a long time.

When discussing about the challenges that a woman, a mother, can face  on the choice of joining a Mission, Anu says: ”When I went to my first Mission my youngest daughter was 12. It was possible for me to go  knowing everything was fine at home, as I had a good agreement with her father”. Anu reveals that at time she felt criticized by some of her male colleagues in the Finnish police for her choice  leave her children to go to  Missions.

Ignore other people’s opinion.

“The advice I would give to women willing to be deployed in Missions is to ignore other people’s opinion. Of course you change your life, so you might lose some friends because there is less time to spend together”.  Anu underlines the importance of the quality of time she had and has with her daughters when serving in Missions, like going on holidays together.

She also recalls hard moments as several times she found herself under attack in Afghanistan, having to spend up to 16 hours in a bunker, with all the consequential difficulties in communicating with her family.

“I always called my daughters from the bunker where I sheltered with my colleagues to reassure them. I have always tried to inform them about everything because things go so fast to the news nowadays and I want them to get the first information from me instead of reading it from the internet”.

Talking about her daily work at EUPOL COPPS Anu explains that she finds out about what kind of trainings are needed by the Palestinian Civil Police, focusing also on gender mainstreaming. She tries to find out for example why women do not attend certain training activities and what should be done about it. “Nowadays Palestinians are willing to send their daughters to train as police officers, also as a source of income for the family, but at the same time there are worries about their safety”.

Anu recognises that her long-term experience in many crisis areas makes her “a very different person than before”.

I see the difference between me and people that have had similar life and professional experiences.

“I see the difference between me and people that have had similar life and professional experiences and the ones back home that have not” says Anu.

“For example, at home people debate about politically correct wording of things, or topics that looked at from other parts of the world frankly look irrelevant”.

The woman who aged 4 knew she would wear a police uniform, concludes: “My observation is that in wealthy countries people easily see small things as a problem, unlike in places where people have worries about bringing food on the table and having to walk long hours for water or to reach the workplace”.