by Michele Bauer

01 June 2000

Bonn, Germany: Saara Parkkali, a Finnish health coordinator in Brazil, has been training for her position as a UN Volunteer since the age of eight.

Saara simultaneously grew up and into her position as a volunteer while spending her childhood in Somalia and Mozambique, where she experienced the needs of the population first hand.

After having completed her nursing studies in Finland and several courses to prepare herself for the work in the developing world, she was ready to take up her position as a UN Volunteer.

Her early and extensive experience in developing countries helps her meet day-to-day challenges. She says it already helps to "just be aware that people are different and that there is not necessarily a right or wrong".

Since August 1999, Saara has been working as a health coordinator in Curitiba, Brazil. In Guaraqueba, the region where Saara works, the most urgent health problems are related to poor conditions of hygiene such as intestinal worms, tuberculosis and common infectious diseases affecting the skin, eyes and ears.

Saara enjoys her assignment and could not imagine going back to routine hospital work in Finland. "I feel I can be of great help to the people," she says. "My goals are small in scale and I do not expect to heal or help the whole world, like many others who go abroad with the mentality to 'fix' everything".

One of Saara's current projects involves the preparation of a leaflet consisting of 30 medical plants found in the region that can be used to treat sicknesses. Each plant is illustrated with an explanation of how it should be used. "I find it necessary and well worth while for these regions because they rarely have any medicine stocks in the health posts and sometimes the only means of treating some sicknesses can be with plants from the region".

Saara believes her work is appreciated by the population. The health personnel in Guaraqueba try to involve her in new projects. "I feel I gained their trust because they want to continue working with me and that is very important".

Saara also describes how working as a volunteer in a developing country can sometimes be frustrating, "Things happen at a slower pace and there is often much more politics involved, even in little decision-making. Also bureaucracy makes things harder to happen or sometimes they do not happen at all".

In addition to her work as a health coordinator Saara helps in a project offering poor Brazilian boys the possibility to take football lessons free of charge and even receive team outfits. "Football is very important in Brazil. Giving children the opportunity to learn how to play even though they do not have the money to pay for the lessons, is a good cause".
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