Report from Kaarina Kaadia Toivo

FIG Foundation Young Surveyor Grant Recipient to attend the FIG Working Week 2017 in Helsinki, Finland

“Overall it was best experience of my entire life and I will forever be thankful to the foundation for granting me this amazing opportunity. Who knew that this small girl from a very small village can one day get on a plane and see the world? I can honestly not put my entire experience in one report no words can fully describe my experience there. I am thankful once again.”

Firstly, I would like to give a big thank you to the FIG Foundation for the humbling opportunity to attend the FIG Working Week in Finland, Helsinki. I will forever cherish this opportunity I am truly grateful.

Having never being on a plane or even just leaving my country, I must say it was extremely terrifying yet exciting at the same time. The journey was long but I finally reached my destination in good time. It was all like a dream really. Ms Claudia was extremely helpful and she directed me so well to the venue. The people of Helsinki were all very friendly and they were so eager to assist me in getting my way around the city.

The working week was the best. I honestly learned so much and I was really excited to learn about all the technological advances in the surveying industry and how my country can gain so much from these conferences.  I was more impressed with the number of females, especially the young surveyors. I got a chance to speak with some of them and they really inspired me to do better and be more involved in my country. I can honestly say that I am a better surveyor because of the FIG. The NSDI training was the highlight to my experience, my country could really use this kind of system especially with the land registration issue and land grabbing that the youth of our country want to implement because they are feeling left out.

The food was amazing, not really my kind of food but it was good, except the meat that tasted very funny. Coming back to my country I was really excited to share with my fellow students and lecturers the experience. They were all so very proud and I encourage the students to get involved and to believe in themselves. Male or female, all things are possible if you put your heart and soul into it. I encouraged them to look into a future of surveying and to come up with new technologies and new ideas on how to make surveying better. I also encouraged them to attend the working week next year. Hopefully, I can also apply again next year because it is an event not to be missed.

Overall it was best experience of my entire life and I will forever be thankful to the foundation for granting me this amazing opportunity. Who knew that this small girl from a very small village can one day get on a plane and see the world? I can honestly not put my entire experience in one report no words can fully describe my experience there. I am thankful once again.

/Kaarina Kaadia Toivo
Namibia