War can never truly end because its consequences last forever, Regina Szwaszka, Director of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay’s International Service Program, told about 20 people at Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Tuesday night.
Szwaszka also encouraged the lecture audience to rally for human rights by joining the Red Cross.
‘You are the future,’ she said. ‘This world is now your responsibility.’
Szwaszka began her presentation by asking what people need to live a comfortable life. Students called out answers including ‘food,’ ‘water,’ ‘clothing’ and ‘security.’
‘These are all correct,’ Szwaszka said. ‘We have all these things, and we take them for granted.’
She then asked students to imagine what life would be like in Boston if the city were attacked.
Szwaszka explained that before she saw war firsthand through the Red Cross, she did not understand the long-term changes that it causes.
‘It wasn’t until I touched the victims, sewed them up, saw what was going on, that I began to stop taking things for granted,’ she said. ‘I realized that I needed to help these people.’
Video presentations aimed to show students the devastating consequences of war. One video tackled the topic of Liberian children forced to become soldiers.
In the video, an 11-year-old boy named Abraham claimed he killed 10 men in combat.
In an interview with one of Abraham’s ‘bossmen,’ he says the Liberian military covets children because they always obey orders.
‘I want soldiers who are 9, 10, 11, 12 years old,’ the bossman explains. ‘Soldiers in their 20s are always afraid. The kids are not afraid. They will do whatever they are told execute, kill, whatever.’
Another video chronicled how landmines affect people in Cambodia.
35,000 citizens of the country are amputees, and landmines have wounded one in every 200 people.
Footage showed women, children and the elderly struggling through daily tasks after losing limbs.
Students said those scenes affected them the most.
‘I had heard about situations like this,’ said Carly Foster, a College of Arts and Sciences junior and president of the Boston University Red Cross Volunteers. ‘But I had never seen the visuals. The campaign against landmines is an issue that I feel very strongly about it just affects so many people.’
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