Too often, volunteer workers like Antti Ranta can have many simultaneous roles

Activists can - and frequently do - take part in voluntary work in several organisations at the same time. In an emergency, they may not be able to get everywhere they are needed

Antti Ranta

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By Petri Korhonen
     
      Farmer Antti Ranta from Sulkava is an extremely important person both for his own municipality and for the whole neighbourhood.
      Ranta leads the local unit of voluntary rescue services.
      The members of the rescue unit are called out in the dead of night if necessary to search for missing persons suffering from dementia or for small children who have gone astray.
     
At the same time, activist Antti Ranta is working on call to respond to emergency requests in the first aid group of the Finnish Red Cross.
      In cases of accidents he could organise treatment for victims, help at the scene, and share work with other rescue workers.
     
Simultaneously, one Antti Ranta is actively taking part in the operation of the local volunteer fire brigade in Sulkava.
      This summer, as before, Antti Ranta is likely to be on call for brush fire alarms when the ground gets parched and tinder-dry.
      At the request of the police, a certain Antti Ranta will participate in official game rescue operations, tracing moose that are injured in car accidents or predators that have strayed into residential areas.
      In a crisis, even the army would have tasks for medical NCO Antti Ranta.
     
If a serious multiple whammy of disasters and misfortunes happened to hit the region, it would be discovered that all these helpful Antti Rantas are one and the same person.
      ”When I receive an SMS from the emergency centre in the middle of the night, I have to read carefully which of my various roles is required that time. Sometimes I should be in many places at the same time. Then I just have to choose the place where I could help most”, Ranta notes.
      Ranta is generous with his spare time, and the overlap in roles is no problem for him.
      However, for the public authorities who are considering the contingency planning for unusual conditions this kind of overlapping is ”one of the greatest problems in the decade”, as Rescue Inspector Matti Virpiaro of the Southern Finland Province puts it.
     
Nobody knows for sure how many volunteer workers in various localities really could be brought together in a real crisis situation, for so many of them where multiple hats (or fluorescent vests), just like Ranta.
      ”This can create a dangerous illusion of real preparedness”, Virpiaro admits.
      In Finland there are tens of thousands of volunteer activists who have been registered in many places.
      Most of them are involved at least in two or three unpaid helper organisations.
     
”In really exceptional circumstances, too many groups would need the help of these same experts”, says Jari Honkanen, the coordinator of the voluntary rescue services at the Finnish Red Cross.
      ”The more extensive the overlap is the more vulnerable that various operations are”, Rescue Inspector Virpiaro notes.
      Virpiaro hopes that the authorities and volunteer organisations would join forces in order to go through their personnel lists systematically and to agree upon the roles of volunteers in advance.
      ”In addition, it would be necessary that the most important volunteers would be exempt from military service”, Virpiaro notes.
      In this way, at least the army would be excluded from among those who seek their services.
     
Combining the overlapping lists could also make the volunteers’ expected workload more realistic.
      ”Sometimes I am worried about the limits of these people’s vigour and physical strength. In the summer for instance, missing persons assignments are frequent, and these duties do not get turned down. People with regular jobs can be burdened with quite a hefty workload”, Jari Honkanen continues.
      By way of one concrete example, last summer Antti Ranta had spent the entire night keeping watch for forest fires when a missing child alert was issued. After taking part in the search, he still performed tasks for the volunteer fire brigade.
      ”One can easily reach the end of one's tether, but the simple desire to help acts as quite a stimulus to people like me”, Antti Ranta adds.
     
     
FACTFILE: Many volunteers are active in several of these organisations
     
      The voluntary groups of the Finnish Red Cross
      Municipal crisis services
      Volunteer fire brigades - summer months can be particularly hectic
      Volunteer rescue services
      Air-Sea Search and Rescue
      Oil spill response teams
      Disaster search dog operations
      Managing civil defence shelters for housing cooperatives and properties
      The Finnish Reservists’ Association - voluntary national defence work
      Game rescue assistance
      Volunteer Road Service - kept particularly busy on holiday weekends
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 3.6.2011


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Recession inspires Finns to do voluntary work (23.2.2010)

Links:
  The Finnish Red Cross

PETRI KORHONEN / Helsingin Sanomat
petri.korhonen@hs.fi