WEBVTT

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I am here tonight

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because I gave a promise
to a 12-year-old boy from Afghanistan.

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His name is Hamid,

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and this is his photo.

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Hamid left by himself
from Kandahar in Afghanistan.

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He left behind
his five brothers, his parents

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and the terror imposed by the Taliban.

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Hamid was thought to have
the best potential amongst his siblings.

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He was the best student.

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What he wanted was a chance
to have a normal life.

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He wanted to stop struggling to survive
every single day of his life.

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He wanted to stop being afraid.

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These were his words to me:

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"I've walked all the way to Turkey,

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through the mountains, the valleys
and the deserts of three countries.

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After four months, I reached the coast.

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I had never seen so much water before.

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The small boat to Greece
was full of people.

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Women and babies were crying.

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Thank God, we arrived alive.

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But we were arrested by the police.

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I ended up in prison.

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It is difficult when I think
how many days I was there.

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What did I do wrong?"

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Hamid was detained with another 40 minors

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in Amygdaleza, a detention centre
for refugees in Greece.

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After being released, he spent five months
living homeless in Pedion tou Areos,

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one of the largest public parks
in the centre of Athens.

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"I was alone again.

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Every night men would come near me.

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They would drink beer and do drugs.

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One night, an old man came

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and offered me 20 euros
to go home with him.

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I started running to get away.

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I was afraid of the police
because I had no papers.

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I did not know what to do
or where to go.

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I didn't speak any English nor Greek,

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so I couldn't ask for help.

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Someone led me to a centre
for homeless people in Omonoia Square.

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I started sleeping
in one of the corners of the square.

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On Christmas Day I met Amadou,

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who brought me
to The Home Project shelter.

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Everything has change since then,

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and I can now tell you my story.

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Hamid was one of the fortunate
lone refugee children.

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You see, he ended up in one
of our shelters.

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Sadly, this is not the case
for the majority of the kids.

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Hamid is one of thousands of children
travelling all alone

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amidst the biggest demographic change
since the Second World War.

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They are what we call in official terms
unaccompanied minors.

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The reasons they travel alone vary.

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Many have lost their parents
during the journey.

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Others are sent away to escape war,
poverty or persecution.

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They are all in search of a better future.

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Travelling alone and unprotected,
they are exposed to all sort of dangers,

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from child abuse to organ trafficking
to sexual exploitation.

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As we speak,

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children in the centre of Athens,
right next to us,

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are selling themselves for sex
in order to survive.

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What awaits refugee children
on the other side of their epic journeys

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are closed borders in Greece,

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where there is a chronic lack

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of social welfare facilities
and services to accommodate them

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and provide for them the necessary
safety and protection framework.

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More than 1.5 million people

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have reached Greece
since the beginning of 2015.

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More than 9,000 lives have been lost
while crossing the Mediterranean.

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Many were children,
and many of them were travelling alone.

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The term migrant or refugee crisis

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cannot begin to explain
the complexity of this phenomenon.

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40% of refugee arrivals are children.

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Of those, we don't know exactly how many,

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and this is part of the problem,

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are thousands of children
who travel and arrive in Europe all alone.

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According to official estimates,

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100,000 unaccompanied minors

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sought asylum
in the European Union in 2015.

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13% of them are children
younger than the age of 14.

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Hamid is one of the 6,512

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officially registered
unaccompanied minors in Greece.

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This is a four-times larger number
than the corresponding period a year ago.

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And note this:

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after the EU-Turkey agreement,

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despite the general decrease
in the number of arrivals,

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the number of lone refugee children
is constantly increasing.

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What has happened is

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that with the closure of the borders
these children are now trapped in Greece,

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and all the relevant shelters
are in full capacity.

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As a result, today,
more than 1,000 children

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are homeless and in urgent need
of protection and support.

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They are spread all over the country,

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living in the streets, in camps,
in detention centres, in police stations.

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They are suffering

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from all sorts of physical, emotional,
psychological and sexual violence.

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These children are
the victims of a cycle of violence.

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They start off fleeing from violence,

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but then they experience it again
once they reach European borders.

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They often suffer
from the injured hero syndrome.

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You see, they arrived in what they thought
would be their promised land,

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where they thought
all their troubles would be over,

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only to experience more violence,
more insecurity and more abuse.

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The children that arrive at our shelters
are often more traumatized

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by what they have experienced
after their arrival in Greece, in Europe,

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than what they have endured
during their perilous journeys or at home.

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Now I know, I have bombarded you

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with a lot of numbers
and a lot of heavy information.

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So, lets pause for a few seconds
and ask ourselves:

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What is a child refugee?

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It's a child in urgent need of a refuge.

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It's a child in urgent need of a home.

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At The Home Project,

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we don't work with migrants,

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we don't work with refugees;

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we work with children.

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Children that have been marginalized
to the point of invisibility.

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HOME stands for Help, Overcome,
Motivate, Empower,

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which is what we do
with everyone that we work with.

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Our mission is
to support, protect, educate

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and provide social integration services

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to children that travel and arrive
in Greece, in Europe, all alone.

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We are currently supporting
the operation of five shelters.

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Four of them are for boys

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and one of them is for girls
and underage mothers with their babies.

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We also have another
five shelters in the making

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that will provide support
to a total of 200 children

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and will lead to the creation
of more than 110 jobs.

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We are grateful to our founding sponsor,

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the Libra Group,

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that has enabled us,
in less than four months,

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to move from inception to set-up,
and from set-up to operations,

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proving by our actions

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that solutions do exist,
solutions are possible.

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The Home Project shelter model
is based on three pillars.

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First of all, through
our partners on the ground,

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we provide a holistic network
of services for the children

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covering their basic needs,

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such as food, shelter, of course,
material provision,

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medical and pharmaceutical support,

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but also anything

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that has to do with legal,
psychological and social support.

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All of our children obtain
immediate access to education

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and attend school in Greece.

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The second element is that we create jobs.

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We create jobs for Greeks,
but also for refugees.

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In order to integrate into any society,
people need a home,

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but they also need a job.

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50% of our shelter staff
comes from the refugee community,

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providing role models
for the children in our shelters.

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The third element is that we add value
to the local economy.

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We all know what Greece has suffered
after nine years of financial crisis,

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so we find unused, unrented buildings
all over the country,

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we renovate them,

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turn them into shelters,

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and pay the rent,

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and the property tax - the infamous ENFIA,
for the Greeks in the room -

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to the owners.

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So, what we do, is we create
a win-win situation for everyone:

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for the Greeks, the refugees,

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but also for the most vulnerable,
for the children.

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We create healing environments,

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platforms of inclusion,

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implementing a more organic,
bottom-up form of social integration

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that will lead to community engagement.

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That's the only way

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we can fight xenophobia,
racism and violent local reactions.

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Three elements are key in our work.

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The first one is empathy.

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We are in constant contact

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with the children and the adults
that we work with,

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but also with our partners on the ground,
at the front line of this refugee crisis.

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We must be near them,

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in order to understand
their constantly evolving needs

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and address them
in the most efficient manner.

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The second element is the creation

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of a positive community of support
around these children,

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which is what we are trying
to do here, tonight.

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We forge and coordinate
effective partnerships

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between all relevant stakeholders:

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NGOs, corporations, private donors,
media, public authorities,

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national and international
organizations and foundations.

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We act as a solutions platform,

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and a channel

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through which help can address
the most urgent needs of the children.

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The third element is
efficiency and rapidity of operations.

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Every minute, 12 refugee children
are being displaced in the world.

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Every minute we spend
turning our backs on this problem

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has a serious toll on human lives.

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We are dealing
with a very vulnerable population,

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literally living on the edge.

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Through The Home Project,

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we not only provide a safe home,

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we give a voice to the children,
we make them feel visible and validated.

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We might have managed
to secure support for 200 children,

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but there are still 1,000
that urgently need our help.

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What would you do

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if you had to protect your child's life

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and bombs were falling
right next to your house every single day,

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or ISIS wanted to militarize
your ten-year-old son,

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or the Taliban wanted to marry
your eight-year-old daughter?

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What would you do?

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I am not here tonight to try to shock you,

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or disturb you,

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or make you feel sad.

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I just want to ask you not to look away.

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Not to look away

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and remain passive about the violence
that is taking place right next to us.

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These children could be our children.

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These children are tomorrow's future.

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By turning our backs to them,

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it's like giving up on hope,

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giving up on love,

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giving up on a better world.

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In what kind of a world
do we want to live?

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In what kind of a world
do we want our children to live in?

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There is no more time to be lost.

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We really are on the edge.

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Supporting and empowering these children

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is a daily resistance to violence.

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That is the promise we gave to Hamid.

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That is the promise we give every day

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to Omar, Taha, Osman, Ali,

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Amadou, Mamadou, Diyar,

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and to all the children
living in our shelters.

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You can now all do something

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to help these children be visible

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and become what they are,

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children ... again.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)