It was a day, in April 1994, that appeared like any other regular weekday, when we woke up to our routine activities. But as we looked at the front page of the Tanzanian Daily News, what we saw was something certainly far from normal; a picture glaring at us depicting a real tragedy. There was a crowd of people, children on their own, many of them bare-footed, crying children, mothers with their children, men alone and with parts of their families walking down the hills of Rwanda towards the border with Tanzania. This was not an ordinary stroll; thousands and thousands of Rwandese were fleeing the massacre that was taking place in Rwanda. At that time, I was posted to Tanzania, living with my 10 years old son; both of us were very unfamiliar with these sort of scenes, in countries where we previously had lived. Especially from his experience of a secure and normal life, my son was too unaware that such situations could happen anywhere in the world. In shock, all I could say was “Oh my God, what a disaster”; “what a human tragedy”.
My son, who was listening and saw the expression on my face, proceeded to ask me what had happened. To be very honest, I could not speak, at which point he took the newspaper and proceeded to see the very graphic photograph below the headline. He continued to ask me what had happened and why those children were like that. In my earlier duty stations we had seen poverty also among children, but never a situation like the one shown in the photograph in front of us. When I regained my composure, I tried to explain to him what was going on.
Much to my surprise, this was more of a shock to him than I had expected; he asked me whether I was working in UNICEF and whether UNICEF belongs to the UN. Following my affirmative response, he proceeded to question me as to what UNICEF was doing on this situation. Whether the reason for UNICEF to exist was to take care of children and make sure that children were never found in the situation depicted in the newspaper photograph. What the UN was and would do to help these children, which as anyone who read the papers and anyone could see, were in real need of immediate help? How do you explain to a 10-year-old why these things happen that are far and beyond poverty alone? It was not an easy response; I do not think that I succeeded in explaining the situation at all. How do we - the grownups - explain the disasters that we create in the world to our children and the future generation so that it does not occur ever again? I believe that the international community in those years promised to themselves that this should NEVER AGAIN be allowed to happen.
It is interesting that after almost three decades, we seem to see the same type of photographs in an entirely different part of the world; there are different circumstances but with the same results, where unfortunately children again are paying the price of a man-made disaster.
When are we all going to learn that the life of children should be protected and cherished at all cost? Is the world ever going to learn?
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