From starvation in Ethiopia to the conflict in Yemen … a Journey of a UNICEF official “for a better world”

Hawkins’s experience in Yemen and his humanitarian journey was present in his dialogue with Melissa Feling Its program “Awke at Night”Who deals with issues that haunt international officials and humanitarian workers. The program, which won awards, is broadcast on the United Nations website.

In this episode, Peter Hawkins contemplates the amazing steadfastness of the people who serve them, and shares how his upbringing taught him in Ethiopia and his service in Iraq never surrenders on his journey to work for change.

We review excerpts from the dialogue with Peter Hawkins.

Insisting on learning despite the destruction

I spent two and a half years in Yemen. You see poverty everywhere, in the eyes of children, their dusty hair and their leather.

Schools were destroyed. So children go there and sit in those semesters without walls, floors, or tables, and learn. They are proud of what they learn.

And they tell me when I visit these schools: “Look, don’t worry. We will continue to learn. But if you can provide us with tables, build walls, and provide floor and blackboard, we will be better.”

What we have been able to do during the past three months is to provide 23,000 tables throughout the northern region. It was a huge achievement. 1116 schools have been qualified throughout Yemen through a wonderful educational program.

I was in a school that was completely destroyed where there were boys and daughters, which is unusual in this context. She entered the children’s separation, and was very damaged. The ceiling was leaning on one stick. I looked at these children there and thought: If there is sermons, what will happen to these children? But on the other hand, they all smiled and learned.

I got out of there, and if I find 12 girls sitting on the floor next to a tree hanging with a blackboard. One of them was carrying her child with her. Be in the eleventh row.

Setting priorities

In Yemen there are many issues that must be dealt with while working there, but I believe that the largest during the past two years was the collapse of the banking system. This really harmed the way of our work.

Our employees were held from the United Nations. This creates a state of uncertainty about the safety and security of our employees.

Another thing is to reduce financing and reduce humanitarian aid. But for me, this is the easiest processing. It is related to setting priorities. What we should defend is to ensure that the most vulnerable children, women, girls, and the weakest boys have the services and access to them.

A story that started in Ethiopia

I was born in East London, and my parents went to Ethiopia. I spent nearly 28 years of my life in Ethiopia, where we were living and studying. Then I joined the high school and university in London, but I was constantly returning to it.

My father and my mother were legal accountants, and founded their own company, an audit company in Ethiopia. Among the things they did, such as the work company on some charitable accounts. One of them was a fistula treatment hospital.

My mother cost me to manage the accounts of that hospital. It was a great experience for me and I am a young man to do this hospital accounts. Then my father became the Chairman of the Board of Directors. After his death, she became a member of the council.

It is these things that make one. The combination of my father’s charitable work, my mother’s desire to succeed and manage business efficiently.

I had the honor to return immediately after the university to work during famine in northern Ethiopia. So Ethiopia represents everything that affects me, motivates me, and benefits me. My work taught me there that you can succeed, ensure a child surviving, and ensuring that people survive.

Join UNICEF and attraction to pluralism

Before joining UNICEF in 2015, I was working in the British government. Pluralism was a great source of attraction for me. Ironically, there is an attack today on pluralism. This is sad. But I prefer to be within a multilateral society to defend our ability to respond to positions instead of staying outside it.

I think pluralism is important because it is the value that motivated the world to join hands after World War II, when the United Nations was established in 1948, and after that.

What we hope is to move away from what we are today. We have to find a new global system. The values ​​upon which the United Nations is based, either to implement or amend them to find a different global system. I am optimistic, but it will take time.

Memories from Iraq

After joining UNICEF has worked in Iraq since 2015. There are many unforgettable situations when I was there.

After the defeat of ISIS directly in Mosul. I was walking in a street in my homes and helmets, and I saw two children playing. They approached them, but they were afraid and running back to their home.

They followed them to their home. Their grandmother was at home, I asked her if I could enter, so she authorized me. We sat there and talked, and spoke with the two children. They did not leave their house for three or four years. This was the first time they went out to play. They were receiving their education at home, and they did not see other adults. But when my tenderness and talked to me, they realized that in this world is good.

Make the world a better place

When I was in Korim, the focus of famine in Ethiopia, at every dawn, I was ascending to the plains and wandering where 100,000 people lived in tents. And I wandered there, I was either coincided with either her dead child or a husband carrying his dead wife. I was overwhelmed by feelings of influence.

If you overwhelm these feelings, you will not be able to do anything to help. So you had to retreat a little and say: “Well, that child, that mother, that father today. How can you prevent it tomorrow?” So, all we do is to stay today and tomorrow, with looking forward to the future to see what we can do to make this world a better place, and contribute even to a part that is going to achieve this.

I was lucky in life. I loved my life. I do not feel any remorse. Every day I wake up and prefer to start in the morning instead of staying awake at night. Nothing worries me at night. I feel something I can do. Everything keeps me continuing during the day.