Helmi is 19 years old and lives in Finland. She completed secondary school during the pandemic. Helmi felt that not being able to talk to anyone or even being able to meet her friends was particularly troublesome.

Helmi found distance learning challenging, both mentally and physically, and that there was a high threshold for asking questions online. Her school supervisor organised a helpful course, where the pupils could talk about how to manage emotions such as loneliness and depression.

She is optimistic and believes that we are now better prepared for a crisis as we have learned some important lessons.

Since Greenland has no physical borders with any neighbouring country it could be completely isolated. By suspending travel by air and water and controlling the movement of people between cities, Greenland was, to a greater extent than other countries, able to keep its society open. Greenland had no nationwide lockdowns – only a few localised ones.

Schools were only closed at the beginning of the pandemic, when all schools were closed for a few weeks. When the Covid-19 virus was identified in a school, a day care centre or other institution, the government temporarily put a restriction on the specific school or institution – either by closing parts of it or closing it entirely (Helfer, Aapola-Kari, & Trane, 2023). Most day-care centres, schools and leisure activities for children and youth remained open during the pandemic. 

Majli is from Greenland, and she was 15 years old and in year eight when the pandemic started. The suggestions by Majli and her classmates to improve the pandemic situation were not acknowledged, meaning they had to catch up with a lot of work when schools reopened after the lockdown periods.

During the pandemic Majli became interested in politics. In her opinion, decision-makers need to listen more to the worries and concerns that youth face.