Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 44

42 ICELAND REVIEW
HUMANITARIAN RELIEF
“The largest number of deaths in the
world are not because of floods, they’re
not because of war, but because of malar-
ia. Just from this tiny little fly!” she
exclaims. According to the World Health
Organization (WHO), a child dies from
malaria every 45 seconds. “When I first
started, the statistic was one in roughly
every 30 seconds so we have made a lot
of progress but there is still a lot more
that needs to be done. No one should die
because of malaria, it’s so unnecessary. We
really need to try to stamp it out,” Hlín
says.
Hlín has fallen ill to the disease twice.
“When you work in an affected area you
usually take malaria prophylaxis but you
shouldn’t take them long-term so I took a
break several times. It’s better to be treat-
ed for malaria in Togo or Mali than in a
non-malaria affected country. It’s much
better where they know exactly what to
do. I fell ill when I was in South Africa, but
malaria is very rare there and so initially I
was not diagnosed correctly.”
Speaking of health concerns, the out-
break of Ebola is what brought Hlín back
to Iceland last year when she was working
between Sierra Leone, Guinea and Niger.
“By September 2014 I was not allowed
back to Sierra Leone and Guinea because
of Ebola so the project was shifted and
extended for Niger only.”
While many people retire in Iceland at
age 67, Hlín continued working despite
turning 70 in 2014 and is still available for
shorter missions. She received an exten-
sion to work the additional three years
but because of the risks associated with
her work abroad, insurance companies in
Iceland will now no longer insure her—an
issue she’s clearly saddened by. “It should
be more about the body and the mind of
each individual. The health needs of each
person should be looked at individually,
especially because in Iceland we tend to
live very long lives,” she says. Iceland has
one of the highest longevity rates. “It could
be just as easy for a person of 70 years old
who has accumulated assets to do this work
as a much younger person without the nec-
essary experience. It’s wrong to put people
on the shelf just because they were born in
1944. Someone who is older has a lot of
experience, a lot of valuable knowledge,”
she argues. While critical of widespread
ageism in society, Hlín admits she too has
been guilty. “Sometimes I was no better
when I worked in the hotel industry. If
I saw a CV from an older person I was
sometimes too quick to write that person
off. Then I started to think more about this
when I quit my work and started looking
for a new job at 56.”
But difficulties in getting insurance cov-
erage in Iceland wouldn’t stop her if she
was asked to go on a mission tomorrow,
she says. “I feel I can still do this [work]. If
it came to it, I would simply sit down and
go over the insurance policy and see what
was covered and what was not. Maybe an
option with an overseas insurance company
could be explored. They may look at things
differently.”
NEXT CHAPTER
Despite being open to more work abroad,
Hlín admits that in 2009 she began think-
ing about the idea of quitting and started
discussing it with her children. Having
only returned to Iceland in November, the
possibility of being back in Iceland for good
hasn’t sunk in yet. “I often spent stretches
of time at home so it still feels like I’m in
between missions,” she says. While she isn’t
currently working, her eight grandchildren
keep her hands full. “Sometimes I look after
all eight at once! The kids love coming
here. It’s a real ‘grandma’s house.’ They
love to play with all the souvenirs from my
trips. It was always good to come back here
from abroad but the place is so big, so it’s
nice to have visitors.”
Hlín’s children grew up in Denmark
but moved back to Iceland before she did.
They’re accustomed to her lifestyle and
long absences, she says, adding that she’s
never felt pressure to settle. However, while
she’s always spent regular time with her
family in Iceland she’s also conscious of all
the life events that have taken place while
she’s been abroad. “When I left for my
first mission my daughter had just gotten
engaged, my son was still single. By the
time I returned in November 2014, after
16 years of missions, they’d both gotten
married and had four children each.”
With her firm belief that you need a
change every seven years, it makes sense to
Hlín to consider stopping now. “I think this
time it might really be the end, this chapter
at least. I believe life should be split up into
lots of seven years. I did roughly four lots of
seven years working in the hotel and tour-
ism industries and now two lots of seven
years, so this makes sense. Now I need to
find my third career!” *
Hlín with the Canadian Red Cross team, which distributed close to 900,000 mosquito nets in Sierra Leone; Volunteers receive cooking pots in lieu of pay;
Boa Esperanca Home for street children in Maputo, Mozambique.