Tempaus got students on the move – 3,844 hours of volunteer work in a week

Tempaus week’s programme from 21 to 25 Oct included blood donation, a working bee in the park, monument construction, and nearly a hundred student-led volunteer projects, ranging from scout activities to animal protection and from event organising to renovation. A total of approximately 1,600 students participated in Tempaus. As many as 348 students donated blood, 220 students cleaned the Otaniemi campus area, and 282 students built the monument for volunteer work.

A fifty-year time capsule was placed inside the monument, containing a message from the patron of Tempaus, Spouse of the President of the Republic Suzanne Innes-Stubb to future student generations. The time capsule also contained greetings from students, the City of Espoo, and Länsiväylä.

The goal of Tempaus was for students to complete the equivalent of one work-year’s worth of volunteer work, i.e. 2,000 hours of volunteer work in a week. The goal was exceeded, and the number of volunteer work hours totalled 3,844, which is equivalent to 1.9 work-years.

With the Collective Handprint campaign, students wanted to highlight the appreciation and significance of volunteer work for Finnish society.

‘The significance of volunteer work has been forgotten in Finland. The third sector enables many societal functions that would not exist otherwise or would have limited resources: social and mental health services and related peer support, sports and recreational opportunities for young people, volunteer fire brigades, and many other issues that are all important parts of Finnish society. However, the operations of these organisations are at risk due to government cuts’, comments student Niina Tapanainen.

Further information:

Niina Tapanainen
Chair of Tempaus Committee, Aalto University Student Union
tel. 0503314314 / [email protected]

Aalto University Student Union AYY is a service and advocacy organisation for approximately 17,000 Aalto University students of technology, business and arts. AYY represents the interests of its members in education policy and student welfare matters, in particular.

Tempaus harnesses the collective power of students to inform the public about issues that students consider important and topical. The theme of Collective Handprint Tempaus was the appreciation and importance of volunteer work in Finnish society.