As a student of at Lutheran school in Martin, I´ve had many opportunities to meet inspirational people who worked as volunteers or were working on projects in developing countries. This year, I got an amazing chance to participate in project called „EUSTORY“ which is focused on development activities of Slovakia.
Theme which I chose was called „Life of family that left Slovakia to work on Slovak´s projects in developing countries“. To go abroad with whole family is hard but it is even harder to start family in developing countries. In my work I retold story of Mária and Lukáš Holeš.
Mária is a doctor, who decided, in her sixth year of university, to leave Slovakia and go to Tanzania. As St.Elizabeth University´s worker she had gone to small village, Shelui. At that time she had been dating Lukáš just few months and he stayed in Slovakia.
Mária´s stay in Tanzania wasn´t easy for her because nothing was the way she expected and there were times when she wanted to give up and leave. But she didn´t. That was the reason why Lukáš decided to pack his stuff and fly to Africa. He thought that he would spend few days there and then come back with Mária as well. He didn´t plan staying there for 9 months as a volunteer.
I fell in love with their story, with their story of finding love. They lived together in Tanzania and they got engaged there even though they had tough times. After wedding, which took a place in Slovakia, they didn´t stay in their hometown for too long. They decided to participate on project in Cambodia which was much different from the one in Africa. While in Tanzania they had different patients every day, in Cambodia they were working in foster home with HIV positive children.
They said it themselves – this work makes them happy and they have amazing support in family and friends. They came back from Cambodia in December 2014 and even though they still get offers for new projects, they want to focus on their own family. In the future they would like to participate in new projects, also with their children.
I´m glad that in Slovakia there is, year by year, more projects about inspiring people around us. The interview with Mária and Lukáš made me sure that I want to work in developing country at some point in my life, that I want to make difference. Our society is often described as selfish, especially young people. I see where it is coming from but I also know that it is changing.
Sabínka Šimková
