Recalling the moment she first bumped into her husband, charity worker Helen Manson tells, “I met Tim at a Rugby World Cup party in 2003 when he asked me to hold his beer while he went to the bathroom. He was a bit grumpy because the All Blacks were losing.”
But his bad mood didn’t stop the pair from going on a date at Denny’s, which is where a 19-year-old Helen told Tim that the man she married would have to be on board with adopting children.
Upon hearing this, Tim took another sip of his Oreo milkshake and added a proviso of his own – he was determined to return to Africa, having lived there as a child with his aid-worker parents.
With their cards on the table and neither of them running for the hills, three years later, they were married – and their story has unfolded exactly as they’d hoped, although it wasn’t a direct route.
While Tim worked as a teacher, Helen did PR for events like New Zealand Fashion Week and Rhythm & Vines, but in 2009, they shook things up by moving to Dubai, where her career continued to flourish.
However, working for big-name clients like General Motors and Fendi didn’t nourish Helen’s soul, so in 2010, the couple headed to Uganda to volunteer and finally make good on their first-date declarations.
“It was only meant to be for five months, but two things happened in Uganda that changed my life,” tells Helen, 37. “First, I was about to eat an apple at a bus stop in Kampala and a young man asked what it was because he’d never seen one before. I gave him the apple and he ate it, core and all, which is how we became friends.
“A few weeks later, Ivan told me he’d been a child solider. He’d been abducted aged nine on his way to school. His friend was shot and Ivan was conscripted into the Lord’s Resistance Army [a rebel Christian force].”
The second life-changing incident occurred when Helen met her sponsored child. She admits, “Putting their photo on your fridge and wondering if they exist, it can feel a bit like a utility payment, but visiting Whilifred, who was one of 11 children, really brought it home for me how vital sponsorship is.”
Captivated by Uganda, in 2014, the Mansons moved there permanently, with Tim joining a trauma-counselling organisation that works with refugees and survivors of war, while Helen became a humanitarian photographer and writer.
Helen’s photographs are seen all over the world.
That year, they were told that emergency foster carers were being sought for a six-day-old baby girl. “We had just nine minutes’ notice,” recalls Helen. “We had no nappies, no bottle, no formula… Nothing! But from the moment I held Hope, I became a mum.”
Two years later, Tim and Helen welcomed their own daughter Eva, and another year later, they adopted a boy called Maz. With three children under three, somehow Helen still found time to work for organisations like the UN, World Vision and the Red Cross, documenting famines, war, refugee camps and disaster zones.
Although she works for trusted organisations, there have been some intimidating encounters, she admits.
“On an assignment on the border of Iraq and Syria, we were pulled over by gunmen in an ISIS-controlled area. All the buildings were destroyed, and we were made to exit our vehicle and show our permits. That was high stakes and my heart did pound.”
In other areas, Helen has had to carry a gasmask in case of a chemical weapon attack. “And sometimes female aid workers have to sign forms to say if we’ll take the morning-after-pill if we’re raped.” But Helen takes risks because she believes these stories must be told.
“It’s the greatest privilege to alert the public to these atrocities. When I hear accounts of unspeakable trauma, my heart breaks, but there’s still nowhere I’d rather be than with those people in that moment.”
In 2020, the Mansons returned to Aotearoa so their son Maz could undergo a heart operation that couldn’t be performed in Uganda. “Also, after seven years working at that level, our stress levels were through the roof.”
These days, the couple both work for the charity Tearfund New Zealand, where Helen is head of communications and Tim, 41, is director of international programmes. And although they’re kept busy with kids Hope, nine, Eva, seven, and Maz, six, they still open their Auckland home to offer respite care to foster children.
Helen and Tim with their kids (from left) Hope, Maz and Eva.
Asked how she stays upbeat after witnessing first-hand the miseries of war, famine, disease and disaster, Helen says, “Whenever I see awful things, I also see the hope. The key is to look for the helpers and it’s my job to shine a light on the many amazing organisations who are out there providing aid.
“I see both sides – the horror and the hope. I still cry, but then I go home and write the best story or campaign that I can to compel others to help.”
This month, Helen is travelling the North Island with Tearfund’s Celebration of Humanity speaking and photography tour. For more info, visit tearfund.org.nz.
