Opportunities often present themselves in the most unexpected ways....which is pretty much the case with our trip to Ecuador this summer. The European Agency I work for in Helsinki offers the chance for parents of young children to take parental leave in order to profit from time together with the family. As maternity leave in the European Institutions only lasts for twenty weeks, parental leave offers a really valuable chance to spend time together as a family, and that had always been our plan for this summer, especially given that our two little ones are still so young. At the same time Åbo Akademi, where I am finishing off a Masters in International Human Rights Law (I highly recommend the course for anyone who might be interested) sent round a mail earlier in the year asking if any students were interested in volunteering to undertake some human rights research in Ecuador. The project was in conjunction with Plan International (a charity working to promote the rights of children globally). Åbo is full of many talented students and had the project been anywhere else I probably wouldn't have had a chance of being picked... but the fact was that this project required the ability to speak Spanish, which happened to be the subject of my first degree. I hoped in 1992 when I started my degree that the Spanish would come in useful one day. I was lucky - here I am.
Whilst preparing for the trip it occurred to me that given the many social problems in Ecuador it would be a great shame not to use the occasion to try and collect some money prior to coming. I knew that any collection probably wouldn't amount to much, but I have always thought that helping a little is certainly better than not helping at all. The problem of course was that never having visited Ecuador I had no identified humanitarian project prior to leaving Finland. This made the collection more difficult because I could not be specific with people as to exactly where the money would be going. For that reason I took the decision simply to send a mail to those work colleagues who knew me personally, and who (I hope) knew that I would make sure the money went to the right place.
I made the first small announcement at one of our unit meetings two weeks before we were due to leave. The meeting was attended by about 15 people. I said nothing about how much I was trying to collect (obviously I wanted as much as possible) but secretly I hoped that I would be able to raise around 500 euros. I figured this had to be enough to achieve something, however modest. But surprising things started to happen. The first was five minutes after this meeting when there was a knock at the door of my office. I went to the door, and without saying anything one of my colleagues took my hand and put something in it. I looked down to see myself holding one hundred euros. I looked up again in surprise. This was a big contribution and much more than I had expected from one person. My colleague must have seen the bewilderment on my face. "I trust you," he said. "I know you'll find the right project to give it to." I am not ashamed to say that I burst into tears.
In fact this was simply the first example of much generosity, and I became humbled by the willingness of others to help, even when there was no project identified in advance. Money kept rolling in over the next few days. One colleague pushed a hundred euros over the table at lunch and another stopped my in the hall and gave me a further hundred and fifty. Most days I would come back from lunch to find another contribution left on my desk. The result was that I left my last day at work with a total of 1654 euros and 44 dollars - more than treble what I had orignally hoped for. The donations were hugely generous, and my only way of saying thank you was to promise each person who had donated that each cent would be used for those who genuinely needed it. There was one common theme expressed by almost everyone, which was that they were happy to give money in this situation because they could be sure that it would not be swallowed up in administration or advertising.
So...at a stroke our summer in Quito became comprised of three distinct elements. Spending time with the family, doing research in human rights and identifying how best to spend the money that I had been entrusted with. Of course at the same time I hope that my older children at least will learn something about life in a place where people do not have the advantages and comfort we risk taking for granted in Finland.
A heartfelt thank you to each one of you who took part in the collection. I am happy to tell you I have found a home for the first $100 - which I think you will agree is a very deserving cause. For the details, please read my next entry which I will post later today. Sunny greetings from Quito.
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