singer you agree in a minute but before
that let’s memorize this song together
and this is how it goes I say one line
and then you repeat it and then we
memorize it
Oh Danny P Donna Donna dosti lagana
when I meet a community other than my
own instead of learning their language I
try to learn a song in their language
and from survivors of earthquake in
Nepal to middle school students in Kabul
Afghanistan this little trick of mine
had served me extremely well for the
last seven years until I start across
this woman in a refugee camp in Hamburg
Germany contrary to the appreciation I
had received earlier she was far from
being pleased as she said nothing except
the phrase Danny padana was correct
embarrassed I told her but that’s what’s
on the Internet and how do you know
anyway how do I know she said because my
brother wrote that folk song in 1950s
and I grew up doing pirouettes on it
every family function
she is Nam a refugee Isis was on it’s
her way to her village and everybody was
rushing to another the car carrying her
family had only four seats left
but Nam had five children she let go of
the eldest daughter because she was the
most grown-up we still don’t know if
she’s still in Iraq or has been
trafficked to some other part of the
world all we know that Isis abducted her
that very day
now I’m sit here all day thinking about
but continues to survive because her
happiest moment still is when she is
with her remaining four children in that
room often humming the melody composed
by her family danny padana dan anna
dosti Lagaan hang on anna as a young boy
growing up i was fascinated by
experiences of people i was kid used to
understand what would somebody be
learning after going through the worst
and the best experience that could
possibly happen to them through my
organization project fuel i now analyze
that curiosity into documenting human
wisdom i collect life lessons of people
from all ages and backgrounds around the
world and design it into interactive and
performance-based exercises in all these
years of learning and teaching from
thousands of life lessons I have come to
realize that there are a thousand ways
to be alive and your hope and your faith
can prove to be too significant
instruments in helping you find that way
for yourself last year when I found out
that nearly 20 million people were being
forced into becoming refugees displaced
by conflict I was determined to find out
if that understanding of mine still
stood to be true amidst the refugee
crisis so what did I do I set out on a
90 day tour across five countries in
Europe in the hope to meet those
refugees as it turns out I didn’t have
to wait that long when I was officially
invited to a refugee camp in Amsterdam
which was housed in a former prison I
realized there were many barriers to be
crossed that day first they were
refugees second they were housed in a
prison being treated like a criminal
third they were being handed these black
boxes of food – the spices three times a
day as simple a word as okay had to be
translated in eight different languages
in my session alone as they waited for
an indefinite period to receive a
citizenship of a country they had never
even heard of until they arrived in it
but I remember most of the people in my
session were really warm and patient
with me except one this guy’s answer to
anything would be a harsh
oh hey do you want to play this game no
you want a smile no after a point I
could not take it so I walked up to him
and I said what’s your problem why are
you so upset and angry do you know what
I’ve been through
no tell me I was on this boat in the
Mediterranean Sea and he begins to tell
the details of being on a boat paying
the smuggler all his life saving and
another refugee listening to the two of
us turns and says you were on that boat
I was on that board to this refugee says
no you’re not no you wouldn’t yeah no I
was on that boat remember this was the
name of the smuggler we paid two
thousand dollars we got off here this is
where the board sort of stopped the
details are right I am told I asked him
why don’t you agree with him if he’s
saying he was on the body would we have
been on the boat so the angry refugee
now turns to this one and says I don’t
believe he was on my boat because he’s
the happiest guy in this refugee camp he
never complains about the food he acts
as a translator for young kids and most
days is always positive I can’t believe
I got off the same boat and became this
angry person and he got off the same
throughout 90 days I was experiencing
many such transformative stories service
inquisitive to know what would be the
reaction of young natives who would be
hosting refugees their age very soon
towards life lessons such as these
so as the last exercise for a class in
Sweden I told my young students to write
a letter to a refugee whose story they
most connected with 10 year old Anna
writes their refugee I’m spoiled I know
I get what I want I get to go where I
want I don’t know you and you don’t know
me but I know that one day you will
think about how far you have come
never stop believing you can do anything
best of luck Anna I passed on these
profound letters to refugees who needed
it on a gloomy day and for others I
didn’t have to they had figured out a
way for themselves in the callee refugee
camp a jungle and illegal can situated
in the South of France it was difficult
to film a photograph nearly 7,000 men
their only goal was to smuggle
themselves into UK each night by jumping
on two speedy trucks on the highway that
the camp was built on I was meet refugee
one evening have a great time and would
come next morning to find out that he’s
no more run over by the same truck he
was chasing last night but me and my
team we were determined to find out what
would be the wisdom that would come from
a place that has experienced such
excruciating pain
so we did not know at the time what a
significant role that would play later
on in fact just a few weeks ago the
French government completely demolished
the cull a refugee camp leaving all
7,000 people homeless again what we at
project fuel has is the only positive
documentation of their knowledge and in
a way a chance for them to leave their
legacy as a promise to my friends from
the jungle I have now turned the
satellite map of the Calais jungle into
a digital map so you can click at any
part of the jungle that once existed a
few weeks ago and learn from the
let me remind you these friends or these
refugees are men who have walked for
seven months through the forests of
Bulgaria they have had to drink diesel
to keep themselves hydrated in the
Sahara Desert
they have been imprisoned for having no
documents in Libya and most
unfortunately have been separated from a
sense of home over and over again what
keeps them going their life lessons
answer that it is hope hope that gives
them afloat and fighting hope that good
people still exist maybe that is why
Sarah a 20 year old Syrian girl who was
called a terrorist for wearing a hijab
at a crowded station in Germany chose to
focus on people who consoled her at that
station rather than one man who attacked
her she advised the world don’t hate
what strange and inspired me to write
poetry and start a campaign called under
the hijab where I asked people from
around the world to submit their
interpretations of a hijab and what lays
under it I coupled the to feel young
Ricardo XL Salahi tunicate raha hey
Jonathan raha hey you Bonta hijab
Buneary kahani haataja skia Cavani lie
ahead kit may he rest a restaging hecha
hani pubic avaya hair restaging a panic
lahum Nessa blue dire hedges un kabocha
van de hua Haku Lana here yeah cool
Akula hey banana he hair bun jato
killjoy is keen Akashi Shia Bujji is
Kida be odyssey yom rica to excel salah
hair yargh re Aetna a vessel ahem Yvonne
Taha jump America honey
Atta hey accompany at aJE’s kayako me
what I realized in that moment is that
any human being who’s fighting against
all odds to emerge victorious in a
vicious situation is unknowingly working
hard towards inspiring someone a
fourteen-year-old
Syrian boy who had lost all his five
family members in a bomb blast in Aleppo
said to me deeper life is very hard but
being angry about it solves nothing does
it I think he was right
otherwise there is no plausible reason
to why Alex whose four-year-old son was
shot in front of him by the ISIS would
continue to feed homeless Germans in
Berlin or Jana who had to leave Syria a
week after her marriage would become an
award-winning entrepreneur in the same
year in Amsterdam on Nabil would have
the courage to pen his autobiography as
a refugee as he hoped to be reunited
with his family someday which by the way
after being with people termed as
refugees for 90 days I have come to
realize that your hope is your knowledge
and that each one of us is a refugee in
some department of life or another
Tarrant ears ever said it best in 150 BC
home assumed humanity hill army alienum
puto i am a human being and nothing
human can be alien to me so whether
displaced by an unstable career troubled
by a shaky relationship fighting a war
in your country or searching for meaning
in your life we all fear homelessness in
some form but choosing to learn from it
and keeping hope alive is the only way
you will come to believe that bad days
are really good in making way for the
great days that are coming so keep
hoping [Applause]