Hän is a Finnish pronoun standing for equal opportunity for people regardless of their background, gender or appearance which is the core value for Finland and its citizens.
In order to promote equality-related values in society, around the world, Finland has announced the list of the Hän Honours in which one of them is a Singaporean citizen.
Receiving the Hän recognition as the first recipient from Singapore, Thambyrajah T is currently working as Registrar since April 2012 at the Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) in Singapore.
The receiving ceremony was held on July 4 where Ambassador of Finland to Singapore Antti Vänskä presented the Hän recognition to Thambyrajah.
Thambyrajah has been awarded because his contribution presents a strong commitment to support equality in Singapore.
He has been supporting both UNIFEM (a part of UN Women) and the Soroptimist International Singapore (a worldwide organization for women) to promote gender equality. He also strongly assists in promoting STEM education for girls and equal employment opportunities for women.
Embassy of Finland in Singapore wrote about Thambyrajah’s feeling on the Hän recognition:
“Instead of celebrating an achievement, he feels like this highlights a value of equality. Mr Thambyrajah mentioned how he finds this whole campaign promoting equality in all aspects to be a very good starting point for conversation and more action in working towards equality among not only genders, but in society with different minorities, the less privileged and varying ethnic groups as well. With a topic you are passionate about, it is easy to talk about it and share it to people around you.”
Source: Embassy of Finland in Singapore
