Finnish schoolchildren to donate day's work to help Tanzania fight AIDS

President Halonen opens this year's Taksvärkki campaign

print this

President Tarja Halonen declared on Saturday that reducing poverty is one of the world's most important common goals.
      Halonen was speaking in Helsinki at the launch of this year's Taksvärkki campaign, in which school pupils work for a day at various jobs and donate their earnings to a worthy cause. This year's campaign will go to fight HIV-AIDS in Tanzania.
      Halonen herself served as chair of the Taksvärkki committee in 1988.
      Campaigners hope that at least 300 schools around Finland would take part in the campaign. Organisers hope that at least EUR 400,000 would be earned.
     
"This is a fund raising drive for children and young people themselves. In this, young people raise money for other young people, and it is important that, attention is focused on a new country and a new theme each hear", says Lauri Peltonen, executive director of the Taksvärkki organisation.
      The money collected in this year's campaign will be used on educating schoolchildren on the spread of HIV.
      Tanzania is one of the world's poorest countries, with nearly 38 million people, 65% of whom are under the age of 25.
      An estimated 100,000 young people have been infected by HIV, and most of them do not even know how the virus is spread, and how to protect against it.
     
"In our culture it is considered sinful for an adult to talk to children about sex. In addition, discussing the matter with a parent, for instance, is very embarrassing for a young person. On the other hand, young people do know how to discuss sex with others of their own age. For that reason, peer education is extremely important", says Ismail Suleiman, director of the Tanzanian HIV-AIDS education organisation Watoto Salaman.
      The organisation trains groups of pupils from individual schools to pass on the message to other schoolchildren.
      The recommended minimum pay for a day's work for Finnish schoolchildren is EUR 10, which is enough to train four Tanzanian pupils as peer educators. Ten euros will also buy 11 training guides for the educators, each of whom can pass on important information to 30-40 of their schoolmates. It is calculated that EUR 10 will spread HIV information to 440 Tanzanian young people.
     
From the point of view of the Finnish schoolchildren, the campaign is aimed at promoting international awareness and common responsibility.
      Working for a day is seen as a concrete act with which Finnish schoolchildren can help their peers in another country.Jutta Urpilainen, chair of the Taksvärkki organisation, says that people can learn something from recent natural disasters.
      "People understand now that the world is a small village. That which happens in Asia or New Orleans affects us as well. We can no longer be indifferent."
     
The main method of fund raising is for schoolchildren to get a day off school to work one day and donate their earnings to the cause. In addition, many schools are organising various events and bazaars to raise money for the effort.
      The Taksvärkki fund raising idea dates back to 1961, when an organisation for the purpose was set up in Sweden in honour of UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who had died in a plane crash.
      The original name was En dag för Dag ("A day for Dag"). Later it took on the form Dagsverke. In Finland it became known as Taksvärkki, the term used for the day's work that Finnish crofters had to perform for their landlords.
      The organisation choses a different project each year. Next year's drive will be to prevent the sexual abuse of children in Guatemala.


Links:
  Taksvärkki web site

Helsingin Sanomat