very different place than where I am now
at exactly this time last year I was in
the middle of a war zone I was working
in the largest displaced persons camp in
South Sudan with a population of over
100,000 people been to camp wasn’t just
the largest in South Sudan it was one of
the largest in the world and there was a
day in that camp that I will never
forget I was managing a malnutrition
center in the middle of the camp and in
front of me there stood a woman she was
wearing a tattered red dress her bare
feet covered in mud and in her arms she
held a small bundle as I approached her
she unwrapped the bundle to reveal a
tiny two-year-old boy it was the worst
case of all nutrition that I’d seen in
my entire career and I knew right away
that the case was too severe to treat
there at our malnutrition center so I
decided to take them to the Doctors
Without Borders Hospital on the other
edge of the camp and on the way there
that woman told me her story she had
spent ten days walking through the
swamps of South Sudan escaping the
brutal civil war that had engulfed her
country she had braved crocodiles hidden
from soldiers and had eaten nothing but
water lilies to stay alive for those 10
days but as we got to the hospital
something strange happened all of a
sudden this woman this brave mother that
had carried her child to safety and now
we were almost there she told us she
didn’t want to stay at the hospital the
nurses and I argued with her we pleaded
and still she told us that she wanted to
go finally we persuaded her to stay and
as I left that hospital I felt a small
sense of victory but it was short-lived
my colleague was with me a member of our
local staff
and he turned to me and without meeting
my eyes he said I think the reason she
didn’t want to stay at the hospital is
because she had other children in her
shelter back at the camp and she didn’t
want to leave them alone for the whole
night my heart sank I had traveled
across the world to be there spent
almost five years working in
humanitarian aid and I had just
convinced this woman to stay at the
hospital potentially putting her other
children in danger suddenly I began to
question everything and that night
sitting in the humanitarian hub on the
edge of the camp I asked myself how did
I end up here
well that begins with my own story as a
seven year old refugee coming to the
United States from the former Soviet
Union I was terrified I didn’t speak a
word of English and according to this
article that’s me right there I didn’t
speak a word of Russian either because I
was in too much shock my family had come
with nothing and through the kindness of
the community we were resettled housed
and built an incredible new life and as
I got older I began to ask myself why me
why was I so fortunate why did I get to
have these opportunities like an
incredible education and access to
health care and I didn’t have all of the
answers and I still don’t but what I did
come to realize is that I feel I have a
sense of responsibility to give back and
for me after three months spent in India
during college that meant giving back in
some of the most marginalized places on
the planet I decided to pursue my dream
I became passionate about health and
nutrition became a registered dietitian
obtained my master’s in public health
and then I was ready to save the world
well saving the world ended up being a
little bit more complex than I’d
initially envisioned and it was during
my first sojourn into the world of
humanitarian aid that I really came to
see this
I was working in Geneva Switzerland with
an NGO a non-governmental organization
on hiv/aids policy issues and though the
work was fascinating I still felt
removed from the issues on the ground I
wanted to see with my own eyes to
understand the root causes of the
poverty malnutrition and health
disparities that are still so pervasive
in our world today so I decided to go to
Africa
initially I worked in Gabon at the
Albert Schweitzer hospital alongside
medical doctors and researchers fighting
malaria and treating malnutrition that’s
me with some of the nurses at the
hospital in Ethiopia I learned about
chronic food insecurity and the effect
that climate change is having on
indigenous populations there are now an
estimated 36 million climate refugees
around the world and that number is only
projected to drastically increase in the
coming decades in dark fur I spent two
years working on programs for the
treatment and prevention of severe acute
malnutrition in children and women you
know it’s interesting in the field of
humanitarian aid as you work your way up
you often go into a tougher situation I
was thinking about it and in the
corporate world as you climb the ladder
get promoted you often you may get that
corner office with a nice view in the
humanitarian world as you work your way
up you may go into a more difficult
situation you might go from working in a
peaceful village in Ethiopia to a war
zone in South Sudan this was the view
from my corner office I was living in a
shared shipping container had a grab bag
ready to go in case of an emergency
evacuation and that was my commute to
work although I have to say there were
days when the commute was a little bit
more exciting as I got further and
further along in my career I began to
see how interconnected we are
interdependent
and that this global interdependence is
a fact of life one which can either be
an intimidating prospect or a cause for
hope and I also began to see the power
that we each possess to make an impact
and I’d like to share with you the three
things that I’ve learned that are key to
making an impact the first is to believe
believe in your ability to make a
difference right now in this particular
moment we have an unprecedented
opportunity to effect change because of
all the resources and technology at our
fingertips and because of these
resources and technology you don’t have
to go to the other side of the world to
affect that change after five years in
Africa I decided to come back home and
launch my own nutrition practice to
integrate all of the lessons I’ve
learned and help improve the health and
nutrition of people here something else
that can help you believe is to find
heroes who inspire you like Malala
yousufzai who at 19 is fighting for
girls right to an education around the
world or Ron Finley right here in Los
Angeles who’s promoting urban gardens
and encouraging people to reclaim their
the next is passion pick a passion you
can’t fix everything but you can choose
one thing one cause or one organization
that sets your heart on fire there are
currently 1.5 million NGOs in the US
alone so chances are there’s one that’s
perfect for you and there you’ll meet
other people who share that common
passion and together you could make a
tremendous difference often it is that
to which we feel a deep emotional
connection that can lead us to the area
where we’re meant to make an impact my
personal experience is a refugee led me
to my passion what is it in your
personal story that will lead you to
yours and last but most important
take action for without action passion
is just a dream it is during the leap
from passion to action that we become
our best selves we learn by taking
action and though we will make mistakes
it is in this space that we will be
humbled and transformed you may have
heard of the butterfly effect chaos
theory states that if a butterfly flaps
its wings on one side of the world it
can cause a chain reaction that could
lead to a cyclone on the other side what
is the chain reaction that your actions
will create I believe that we each have
a role to play and a responsibility to
create a more humane and peaceful world
and my question to you is what is your role