Hjalmar Hansen, a shepherd among men and sheep
One of the member countries of NordAN is Faroe Islands. In many ways typical Nordic country with several special characteristics that makes it one of the most exciting places to live. Hjalmar Hansen is a leader of Blue Cross Faroe Islands and he was willing to speak about the country and work that they are doing among this rather small nation.
By Lauri Beekmann, lauri@ave.ee
Tell a bit about Faroe Islands? What could be three main things to describe it?
Faroe Islands are a small community in the middle of the North Atlantic. You can see
the sea from every where. If I shall use 3 words to describe our country I think: gentle people, rainy weather and far away, are 3 key words.
What is the population there?
We are a small nation. There are living 48.000 people on the Faroe Islands – and 80.000 sheep!
We know the traditional Nordic alcohol policy as one of the strictest regulation in the world. How is it in Faeroe Islands?
We have a Nordic Model, like Norway and Sweden. People have the same drinking patterns as in other Scandinavian countries. We have a monopoly system, where price and accessibility are the main instruments. We have a ban against alcohol advertisement.
How did you end up in Blue Cross? What brought you there?
I have been a member of Blue Cross since I was 14 years old. I ended in the board for Blue Cross for some years ago. In 2007 we had a very challenging economical situation and I accepted to try to get us out of this situation. Well, we have succeeded to get hold on the situation. The work has been growing the past 3-4 years- but I am still here!
I understand you have a business background? Where else have you worked?
I have a Master degree in Law and Economic from the Copenhagen Business School. I have working experience as a teacher in a business college, from the Ministry of Fisheries and from a oil company.
And now, as a secretary general of the Blue Cross, what are your main responsibilities?
We are a small organisation. However we have a paid staff of around 18 persons and around 170 volunteers. My main responsibilities are to make the decisions of the board to reality. To lead the staff take a lot of my time and to take care of the financial situation are also time consuming. The connection to authorities, donors and churches are also part of my job. We try also to put alcohol questions on the agenda among the politicians and in the public.
What about the whole organisation? What are the main areas of work for the Blue Cross in Faeroe Islands?
We are a temperance movement and a diaconical movement. We have a treatment centre, work for homeless and alcohol prevention work. We try both to take care of those harmed by alcohol and prevent that people use or misuse alcohol and other drugs.
Blue Cross is a Christian organisation. How much being a christian is a motivation for you in this work?
Christianity are the main driving force in my work. Jesus asked us to be light and salt on earth. We often think this as preaching the gospel. That is something christians shall do, but I think that most important are how we live our lives – serving our neighbour in need. This is the main object of our Blue Cross work.
Can you bring out one special project that you have done and that you can point out as a best practice example? Something that has been really successful.
There could be several. The latest very successful “project”, was in this month. It was short in time – just one week, but we succeeded to get 90% of all college student on the Faroe Islands to a prevention seminar on there school. We got time in all 3 radiostations on the Faroes and even in the news in the only faroese TV-channel. This “project” was a prevention seminar done together with the Norwegian artist, Hans Inge Fagervik. The feed-back has been very positive.
Do you have any specific future plans in your work? Something new you want to start?
We are just now working on a larger project, targeting children growing up in families with alcohol/drug problems. These children are in the greatest risk, and if the project succeed we see this as the most important prevention work.
As a father, how do you raise your children, to keep them safe from harm that comes from alcohol and other drugs?
We have 4 children. 3 boys, age 18, 15, 7 and a girl 4. The elder boys have taken the decision to be abstinence.
My opinion is that as parents we have to take decisions for our children when they are young. We have to set limits. But the most important “instrument” to protect your children is our own attitude. As parents we are the role models for our children. Most likely the will do as we have done. So when we ourselves are abstinence, this is the best decision for our children.
How important is the role of the family when we think of this problem in the society? We tend to concentrate to the policy regulation and enforcement. What about the family?
On the micro level the family is the most important institution in shaping and influencing the growing generation. Well functioning and healthy families are the great values for a society. For instance in behavioural prevention work it is not efficient only to work with children or youth. Only when you have the parents involved you get good results.
But we know of course, that there are not all families that are well functioning. There are many broken people on earth, many that are not able to take the best decisions for their own life, so the macro level – with regulation and policy - are also important, and we can’t stop influencing this level. It is necessary to have a public health perspective. There is a possibility that this perspective gets very much focus and numbers and statistics, but we must not forget that behind numbers are real people harmed by alcohol and drugs.
Is there anything that you expect from the NordAN network? Where do you think NordAN could develop to become more effective in achieving its goals?
To be honest – the NordAN network has not our first priority in Blue Cross Faroe Islands and we are not one of the most active members in this network. Blue Cross is an international movement and we also have our Nordic Blue Cross network. In many countries, Blue Cross has no tradition for a strong voice on the alcohol policy arena. On the Faroe Island we have always had the political work as a part of our work. So for us NordAN is an inspiration for our political work.
I think it is an important work to give politicians reliable data, presented on a good way and as I see it, this is one of NordAN strengths, that perhaps could be developed further.
