Boston University’s Catholic Center’s Sister Olga Yaqob spoke about the experiences she faced as a young girl growing up in war-torn Iraq that led her to dedicate the rest of her life to service, especially to help struggling children of the world through UNICEF.
‘The rights of children are our responsibility,’ Yaqob said during her talk on Monday at the Howard Thurman Center. ‘Otherwise, they have no voice.’
As a freshman in high school, she became involved with her church in Iraq. There, she used to wash the bodies of the dead to prepare them for funerals. It was also her job to notify the families of the deceased. She recalled seeing children, whose mothers or fathers had just died, walk into the church.
‘At seeing the faces of children speechless, their eyes seeking answers, I knew my vocation was set,’ she said.
Yaqob left home as a young woman to devote her life to serving people. She visited children who were in prison in Iraq, often bringing them nutritional snacks, such as oranges and eggs. It was then that UNICEF stepped in to help. The humanitarian organization, that has saved more lives than any other, created special programs to educate the imprisoned children.
Yaqob explained that in order for Iraq to recover, its citizens need first to help the children, the future, by keeping them healthy and giving them an education.
Education is an important factor in stopping the cycle of war and building a more peaceful Iraq, Yaqob said. She remembers as a young girl how the only time of enjoyment for children in Iraq was the half hour of cartoons played on the television. However, in the half hour before these cartoons, the government-controlled media would broadcast segments that encouraged war. Inevitably the children, in their excitement to watch cartoons, would end up watching part of this violent military propaganda, which would only cause more war and more destruction.
‘There is no winner in war,’ Yaqob said. ‘It is an unending cycle of hated.’
UNICEF at Boston University holds monthly meetings in which members discuss ways to help children in need, program coordinator Meghan Rhodes, a BU UNICEF member, said.
‘There are a lot of events going on outside of the country that students should be aware of,’ Rhodes, a School of Education sophomore, said.
College of Arts and Sciences junior Jasper Lo said he came to the meeting hoping to gain knowledge of the Iraqi culture from an Iraqi herself.
‘Americans should strive to be in tune to other cultures,’ he said. ‘It is every individual’s responsibility to become educated.’
BU’s UNICEF Treasurer Flora Oh said she still remembers when she first joined UNICEF and how excited Sister Olga was about it.
‘I wanted to know what made her love UNICEF so much,’ Oh, a School of Management junior, said.
International Relations professor and UNICEF advisor Michael Corgan said a successful society is one that provides for the least able to speak for themselves. In this case, that means children.
Corgan urged students to take an hour a month to go to a nearby children’s hospital and spend time with the children, saying that they can act as a big brother or sister figure to a sick child.
Quoting the Red Cross, Corgan said, ‘Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.’
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