How to help refugees rebuild their world
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0:01 - 0:02So I started working
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0:02 - 0:04with refugees because I wanted
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0:04 - 0:07to make a difference,
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0:07 - 0:08and making a difference starts
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0:08 - 0:10with telling their stories.
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0:10 - 0:12So when I meet refugees,
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0:12 - 0:15I always ask them questions.
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0:15 - 0:17Who bombed your house?
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0:17 - 0:20Who killed your son?
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0:20 - 0:24Did the rest of your family make it out alive?
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0:24 - 0:26How are you coping
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0:26 - 0:28in your life in exile?
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0:28 - 0:31But there's one question that always seems to me
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0:31 - 0:34to be most revealing, and that is:
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0:34 - 0:36What did you take?
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0:36 - 0:38What was that most important thing
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0:38 - 0:40that you had to take with you
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0:40 - 0:44when the bombs were exploding in your town,
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0:44 - 0:48and the armed gangs were approaching your house?
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0:48 - 0:51A Syrian refugee boy I know
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0:51 - 0:53told me that he didn't hesitate
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0:53 - 0:57when his life was in imminent danger.
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0:57 - 1:00He took his high school diploma,
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1:00 - 1:02and later he told me why.
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1:02 - 1:05He said, "I took my high school diploma
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1:05 - 1:08because my life depended on it."
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1:08 - 1:12And he would risk his life to get that diploma.
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1:12 - 1:15On his way to school, he would dodge snipers.
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1:15 - 1:18His classroom sometimes shook
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1:18 - 1:21with the sound of bombs and shelling,
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1:21 - 1:24and his mother told me,
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1:24 - 1:27"Every day, I would say to him every morning,
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1:27 - 1:30'Honey, please don't go to school.'"
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1:30 - 1:33And when he insisted, she said,
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1:33 - 1:37"I would hug him as if it were for the last time."
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1:37 - 1:39But he said to his mother,
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1:39 - 1:41"We're all afraid,
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1:41 - 1:44but our determination to graduate
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1:44 - 1:47is stronger than our fear."
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1:47 - 1:51But one day, the family got terrible news.
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1:51 - 1:54Hany's aunt, his uncle and his cousin
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1:54 - 1:56were murdered in their homes for refusing
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1:56 - 1:57to leave their house.
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1:57 - 2:00Their throats were slit.
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2:00 - 2:03It was time to flee.
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2:03 - 2:06They left that day, right away, in their car,
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2:06 - 2:08Hany hidden in the back because they were facing
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2:08 - 2:11checkpoints of menacing soldiers.
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2:11 - 2:15And they would cross the border into Lebanon,
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2:15 - 2:18where they would find peace.
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2:18 - 2:22But they would begin a life of grueling hardship
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2:22 - 2:25and monotony.
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2:25 - 2:27They had no choice but to build a shack
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2:27 - 2:29on the side of a muddy field,
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2:29 - 2:31and this is Hany's brother Ashraf,
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2:31 - 2:33who plays outside.
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2:33 - 2:35And that day, they joined
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2:35 - 2:40the biggest population of refugees in the world,
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2:40 - 2:43in a country, Lebanon, that is tiny.
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2:43 - 2:46It only has four million citizens,
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2:46 - 2:50and there are one million Syrian refugees living there.
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2:50 - 2:54There's not a town, a city or a village
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2:54 - 2:58that is not host to Syrian refugees.
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2:58 - 3:02This is generosity and humanity
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3:02 - 3:06that is remarkable.
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3:06 - 3:09Think about it this way, proportionately.
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3:09 - 3:11It would be as if
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3:11 - 3:14the entire population of Germany,
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3:14 - 3:1680 million people,
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3:16 - 3:21would flee to the United States in just three years.
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3:21 - 3:24Half of the entire population of Syria
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3:24 - 3:27is now uprooted,
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3:27 - 3:28most of them inside the country.
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3:28 - 3:31Six and a half million people
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3:31 - 3:33have fled for their lives.
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3:33 - 3:36Over and well over three million people
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3:36 - 3:38have crossed the borders
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3:38 - 3:41and have found sanctuary
in the neighboring countries, -
3:41 - 3:44and only a small proportion, as you see,
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3:44 - 3:49have moved on to Europe.
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3:49 - 3:51What I find most worrying
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3:51 - 3:55is that half of all Syrian refugees are children.
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3:55 - 3:57I took this picture of this little girl.
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3:57 - 4:00It was just two hours after she had arrived
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4:00 - 4:05after a long trek from Syria into Jordan.
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4:05 - 4:08And most troubling of all
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4:08 - 4:12is that only 20 percent of
Syrian refugee children -
4:12 - 4:15are in school in Lebanon.
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4:15 - 4:18And yet, Syrian refugee children,
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4:18 - 4:21all refugee children tell us
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4:21 - 4:26education is the most important thing in their lives.
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4:26 - 4:30Why? Because it allows them to think of their future
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4:30 - 4:33rather than the nightmare of their past.
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4:33 - 4:39It allows them to think of hope rather than hatred.
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4:39 - 4:41I'm reminded of a recent visit I took
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4:41 - 4:44to a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq,
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4:44 - 4:46and I met this girl,
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4:46 - 4:48and I thought, "She's beautiful,"
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4:48 - 4:50and I went up to her and asked her,
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4:50 - 4:52"Can I take your picture?"
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4:52 - 4:53And she said yes,
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4:53 - 4:56but she refused to smile.
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4:56 - 4:59I think she couldn't,
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4:59 - 5:03because I think she must realize that she represents
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5:03 - 5:07a lost generation of Syrian refugee children,
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5:07 - 5:12a generation isolated and frustrated.
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5:12 - 5:15And yet, look at what they fled:
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5:15 - 5:17utter destruction,
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5:17 - 5:23buildings, industries, schools, roads, homes.
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5:23 - 5:26Hany's home was also destroyed.
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5:26 - 5:29This will need to be rebuilt
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5:29 - 5:34by architects, by engineers, by electricians.
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5:34 - 5:37Communities will need teachers and lawyers
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5:37 - 5:42and politicians interested in reconciliation
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5:42 - 5:44and not revenge.
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5:44 - 5:46Shouldn't this be rebuilt
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5:46 - 5:49by the people with the largest stake,
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5:49 - 5:55the societies in exile, the refugees?
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5:55 - 5:58Refugees have a lot of time
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5:58 - 6:00to prepare for their return.
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6:00 - 6:03You might imagine that being a refugee
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6:03 - 6:05is just a temporary state.
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6:05 - 6:08Well far from it.
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6:08 - 6:12With wars going on and on,
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6:12 - 6:15the average time a refugee will spend in exile
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6:15 - 6:19is 17 years.
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6:19 - 6:22Hany was into his second year in limbo
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6:22 - 6:25when I went to visit him recently,
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6:25 - 6:29and we conducted our entire conversation in English,
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6:29 - 6:30which he confessed to me he learned
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6:30 - 6:34from reading all of Dan Brown's novels
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6:34 - 6:38and from listening to American rap.
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6:38 - 6:41We also spent some nice moments of laughter
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6:41 - 6:46and fun with his beloved brother Ashraf.
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6:46 - 6:47But I'll never forget what he told me
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6:47 - 6:51when we ended our conversation that day.
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6:51 - 6:53He said to me,
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6:53 - 6:59"If I am not a student, I am nothing."
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6:59 - 7:03Hany is one of 50 million people
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7:03 - 7:06uprooted in this world today.
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7:06 - 7:09Never since World War II
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7:09 - 7:14have so many people been forcibly displaced.
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7:14 - 7:17So while we're making sweeping progress
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7:17 - 7:19in human health,
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7:19 - 7:24in technology, in education and design,
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7:24 - 7:27we are doing dangerously little
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7:27 - 7:31to help the victims
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7:31 - 7:33and we are doing far too little
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7:33 - 7:35to stop and prevent
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7:35 - 7:39the wars that are driving them from their homes.
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7:39 - 7:43And there are more and more victims.
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7:43 - 7:46Every day, on average,
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7:46 - 7:48by the end of this day,
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7:48 - 7:5232,000 people will be forcibly displaced
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7:52 - 7:54from their homes —
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7:54 - 7:5732,000 people.
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7:59 - 8:03They flee across borders like this one.
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8:03 - 8:07We captured this on the Syrian border to Jordan,
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8:07 - 8:10and this is a typical day.
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8:14 - 8:18Or they flee on unseaworthy and overcrowded boats,
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8:18 - 8:20risking their lives in this case
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8:20 - 8:23just to reach safety in Europe.
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8:23 - 8:25This Syrian young man
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8:25 - 8:27survived one of these boats that capsized —
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8:27 - 8:29most of the people drowned —
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8:29 - 8:31and he told us,
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8:31 - 8:35"Syrians are just looking for a quiet place
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8:35 - 8:38where nobody hurts you,
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8:38 - 8:41where nobody humiliates you,
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8:41 - 8:44and where nobody kills you."
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8:44 - 8:47Well, I think that should be the minimum.
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8:47 - 8:50How about a place of healing,
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8:50 - 8:52of learning,
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8:52 - 8:55and even opportunity?
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8:57 - 8:59Americans and Europeans
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8:59 - 9:02have the impression that proportionally
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9:02 - 9:04huge numbers of refugees are coming
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9:04 - 9:06to their country,
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9:06 - 9:09but the reality is
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9:09 - 9:12that 86 percent, the vast majority of refugees,
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9:12 - 9:15are living in the developing world,
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9:15 - 9:20in countries struggling with their own insecurity,
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9:20 - 9:24with their own issues of helping their own populations
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9:24 - 9:26and poverty.
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9:26 - 9:29So wealthy countries in the world should recognize
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9:29 - 9:33the humanity and the generosity of the countries
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9:33 - 9:37that are hosting so many refugees.
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9:37 - 9:40And all countries should make sure that no one
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9:40 - 9:43fleeing war and persecution
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9:43 - 9:47arrives at a closed border.
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9:47 - 9:49(Applause)
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9:49 - 9:53Thank you.
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9:54 - 9:57But there is something more that we can do
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9:57 - 10:01than just simply helping refugees survive.
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10:01 - 10:04We can help them thrive.
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10:04 - 10:08We should think of refugee camps and communities
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10:08 - 10:12as more than just temporary population centers
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10:12 - 10:14where people languish
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10:14 - 10:17waiting for the war to end.
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10:17 - 10:21Rather, as centers of excellence,
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10:21 - 10:24where refugees can triumph over their trauma
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10:24 - 10:28and train for the day that they can go home
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10:28 - 10:31as agents of positive change
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10:31 - 10:35and social transformation.
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10:35 - 10:38It makes so much sense,
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10:38 - 10:42but I'm reminded of the terrible war in Somalia
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10:42 - 10:46that has been raging on for 22 years.
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10:46 - 10:48And imagine living in this camp.
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10:48 - 10:50I visited this camp.
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10:50 - 10:52It's in Djibouti, neighboring Somalia,
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10:52 - 10:54and it was so remote
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10:54 - 10:57that we had to take a helicopter to fly there.
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10:57 - 11:00It was dusty and it was terribly hot.
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11:00 - 11:02And we went to visit a school
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11:02 - 11:04and started talking to the children,
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11:04 - 11:07and then I saw this girl across the room
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11:07 - 11:09who looked to me to be the same age
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11:09 - 11:12as my own daughter, and I went up and talked to her.
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11:12 - 11:14And I asked her the questions
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11:14 - 11:16that grown-ups ask kids,
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11:16 - 11:18like, "What is your favorite subject?"
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11:18 - 11:20and, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
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11:20 - 11:24And this is when her face turned blank,
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11:24 - 11:26and she said to me,
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11:26 - 11:28"I have no future.
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11:28 - 11:31My schooling days are over."
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11:31 - 11:33And I thought, there must be some misunderstanding,
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11:33 - 11:35so I turned to my colleague
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11:35 - 11:37and she confirmed to me
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11:37 - 11:40there is no funding for secondary education
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11:40 - 11:42in this camp.
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11:42 - 11:44And how I wished at that moment
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11:44 - 11:46that I could say to her,
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11:46 - 11:48"We will build you a school."
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11:48 - 11:53And I also thought, what a waste.
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11:53 - 11:56She should be and she is
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11:56 - 12:00the future of Somalia.
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12:00 - 12:03A boy named Jacob Atem
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12:03 - 12:06had a different chance, but not before he experienced
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12:06 - 12:08terribly tragedy.
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12:08 - 12:11He watched — this is in Sudan —
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12:11 - 12:13as his village — he was only seven years old —
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12:13 - 12:16burned to the ground, and he learned
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12:16 - 12:17that his mother and his father
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12:17 - 12:19and his entire family
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12:19 - 12:21were killed that day.
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12:21 - 12:23Only his cousin survived, and the two of them
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12:23 - 12:25walked for seven months —
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12:25 - 12:27this is boys like him —
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12:27 - 12:30chased and pursued by wild
animals and armed gangs, -
12:30 - 12:33and they finally made it to refugee camps
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12:33 - 12:34where they found safety,
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12:34 - 12:36and he would spend the next seven years
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12:36 - 12:40in Kenya in a refugee camp.
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12:40 - 12:42But his life changed
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12:42 - 12:44when he got the chance to be resettled
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12:44 - 12:46to the United States,
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12:46 - 12:49and he found love in a foster family
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12:49 - 12:52and he was able to go to school,
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12:52 - 12:54and he wanted me to share with you
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12:54 - 12:56this proud moment
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12:56 - 12:58when he graduated from university.
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12:58 - 13:02(Applause)
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13:04 - 13:06I spoke to him on Skype the other day,
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13:06 - 13:11and he was in his new university in Florida
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13:11 - 13:14pursuing his Ph.D. in public health,
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13:14 - 13:17and he proudly told me how he was able to raise
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13:17 - 13:20enough funds from the American public
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13:20 - 13:25to establish a health clinic back in his village
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13:25 - 13:28back home.
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13:28 - 13:31So I want to take you back to Hany.
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13:31 - 13:33When I told him I was going to have the chance
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13:33 - 13:36to speak to you here on the TED stage,
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13:36 - 13:38he allowed me to read you a poem
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13:38 - 13:42that he sent in an email to me.
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13:42 - 13:44He wrote:
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13:45 - 13:48"I miss myself,
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13:48 - 13:50my friends,
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13:50 - 13:55times of reading novels or writing poems,
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13:55 - 14:00birds and tea in the morning.
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14:00 - 14:04My room, my books, myself,
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14:04 - 14:10and everything that was making me smile.
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14:10 - 14:14Oh, oh, I had so many dreams
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14:14 - 14:18that were about to be realized."
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14:19 - 14:22So here is my point:
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14:22 - 14:24Not investing in refugees
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14:24 - 14:29is a huge missed opportunity.
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14:29 - 14:31Leave them abandoned,
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14:31 - 14:36and they risk exploitation and abuse,
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14:36 - 14:40and leave them unskilled and uneducated,
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14:40 - 14:42and delay by years the return
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14:42 - 14:48to peace and prosperity in their countries.
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14:48 - 14:51I believe how we treat the uprooted
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14:51 - 14:56will shape the future of our world.
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14:56 - 14:59The victims of war can hold the keys
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14:59 - 15:01to lasting peace,
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15:01 - 15:03and it's the refugees
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15:03 - 15:07who can stop the cycle of violence.
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15:07 - 15:10Hany is at a tipping point.
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15:10 - 15:12We would love to help him go to university
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15:12 - 15:15and to become an engineer,
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15:15 - 15:19but our funds are prioritized for the basics in life:
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15:19 - 15:23tents and blankets and mattresses and kitchen sets,
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15:23 - 15:28food rations and a bit of medicine.
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15:28 - 15:31University is a luxury.
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15:31 - 15:35But leave him to languish in this muddy field,
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15:35 - 15:37and he will become a member
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15:37 - 15:41of a lost generation.
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15:41 - 15:45Hany's story is a tragedy,
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15:45 - 15:49but it doesn't have to end that way.
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15:49 - 15:51Thank you.
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15:51 - 15:55(Applause)
- Title:
- How to help refugees rebuild their world
- Speaker:
- Melissa Fleming
- Description:
-
50 million people in the world today have been forcefully displaced from their home — a level not seen since WWII. Right now, more than 3 million Syrian refugees are seeking shelter in neighboring countries. In Lebanon, half of these refugees are children; only 20% are in school. Melissa Fleming of the UN's refugee agency calls on all of us to make sure that refugee camps are healing places where people can develop the skills they’ll need to rebuild their hometowns.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:08
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Let’s help refugees thrive, not just survive | ||
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Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Let’s help refugees thrive, not just survive |
Mari Arimitsu
I am wondering if "Honey" at 1:27 - 1:30 is "Hany" instead. His name suddenly appears at 1:51 - 1:54 (Hany's aunt, his uncle...) and I felt a bit strange.