most of us the child that I met during
one of my medical missions in Jordan I
was providing medical care to refugees
and it began to rain I ran into a van
for cover and when I looked out there
was most of us staring at me
I still see his face I will never forget
the way he looked at me I saw fear
confusion helplessness he was standing
there barefoot in the mud holding a
soaked piece of bread to eat most of us
is one of the many children that I meet
during these medical missions they are
what the outside world calls a refugee
crisis all of us are aware of the crisis
and I’m not here today to lecture you or
to apply you with any more statistics I
am here today to share with you the
story of Mustafa and the countless other
children like Mustafa who live in
refugee camps across Palestine Jordan
Lebanon and Turkey their innocent faces
have changed me and changed my direction
in life they drew me into a completely
different life a better life but one I
never imagined I’d be in today I’m
someone who spends most of her free time
in refugee camps across the Middle East
helping people who have lost so much but
I wasn’t always like this
see the story of these children isn’t
about what we can do for them or what we
can bring them it’s about what they can
do for us and what they can give us if
we let them to understand how these
children changed my life I’m going to
share with you a little bit about my
background my parents are originally
from Palestine but I was born and raised
here in the United States my parents
instilled in my brothers and my sisters
and I a core set of values love your
neighbor
don’t lie don’t cheap and always give
back during Ramadan
every year since I can remember my
family and I would choose a charity to
donate to to help people who were in
need
my parents would remind me every day how
lucky I am to have food on the table so
giving back was part of my life growing
up but that wasn’t the only part the
other part the larger part was full of
school education and frankly making a
lot of money to buy what I want live how
I wanted to and be that strong
independent woman I’ve always dreamed of
becoming and today I’m a divisional
director of health and wellness in the
state of Washington and I’m pursuing my
doctorate in nursing practice and
leadership but my life in Washington and
the way I viewed that part of my life
changed three years ago when I got an
opportunity to host a seven-year-old boy
named Waseem from Gaza what seemed lived
in a tent with his family in a refugee
camp he was born with a congenital
deformity to his lower Lakes that left
him unable to walk he arrived at
Shriners Hospital in Spokane Washington
and he stayed there for about six months
to receive treatment when I first saw
was him I still remember his facial
expression he had that sad loss hopeless
look about him I wanted to do everything
possible to make what seemed happy I
bought him everything a seven-year-old
child could want but he would just look
at look at the items and put them down
and not play with them at first I never
understood why but then I understood
what will seem needed from me was love
support and to help him believe in
himself that he could do anything he
wanted to do I gave what seemed what he
needed from me what seemed felt
unstoppable like he could do anything
within six months what seemed was up
walking with prosthetics for the first
time in his life he learned the English
language he spoke Spanish too
he felt unstoppable like he was going to
do anything I go to school and today
what seem is in school for the first
time in his life seeing that positive
change
made me want to share what same story
and so I did I shared it on my social
media friends family people I’ve never
met before fell in love with Waseem
story and they fell in love with his
courage people would we share my posts
and reach out to me and tell me how
inspired they were because of what
seemed and they wanted to do more to
help I wanted to help more children like
Waseem
so I got an idea to start urging care
clinics in refugee camps I use social
media as my platform to recruit medical
professionals volunteers and to collect
enough donations to buy medical supplies
and care initially I thought I was only
going to get local volunteers but to my
surprise people from all over the world
reached out to me here I can only name a
few people that came with me on these
humanitarian missions from Spain doctor
Caliente doctor frioli from Italy dr.
Mario from Egypt dr. Hasan from from
Palestine dr. Maha and dr. Farzad but it
wasn’t only medical professionals who
joined our medical missions
it was photographers journalists
housewives office personnel the next
generation of leaders all of us had the
same need we wanted to help people who
needed us in our first medical mission
we said we setup urgent care clinics and
multiple different refugee camps and
provided medical care and provided aid
some of the aid we distributed were
school supplies books food baskets
clothes shoes basic human necessities in
this picture here dr. Faisal WA and ER
trauma doctor is attempting to remove a
foreign object from a little girl’s ear
and this picture a diabetic woman is
complaining of dizziness and short
a breath so she’s getting her blood
sugar checked but it isn’t easy to set
up these medical missions they take
months to plan I have to find the right
area the right location get clearance to
enter the area and get medical clearance
to treat them the people in the area my
volunteers and I have to travel
thousands of miles and we are at times
detained at the airport and held for
hours sometimes we’re denied entry into
the country
I personally was was detained for 17
hours in a jail like location in Lebanon
and denied entry all volunteers must
travel thousands of miles leave their
sheltered homes and lives to help people
who need the help
we paper own expenses we bring our own
equipment and we work every day for
seven days and in each area we visit we
do this not because we must because but
because the people inspire us in those
camps we are one with the people those
people inspire us to continue to do this
work in every refugee camp in
impoverished area that I have been in –
the first thing that I noticed when I
enter the camp is the children’s faces
they all have that same sad look about
them but then something changes they
feel like we’re there to like we care
about them we show them love we show
them compassion their faces change they
feel like they could trust us we turn
into their heroes and their faces turn
into laughter in these past three years
this is what has changed about me when I
close my eyes and try to sleep images of
these children run through my head I try
to catch their faces and pictures but I
can’t adequately describe the pain and
horror all these children go through
these faces push me to continue to do
this type of work
and to help give them a better tomorrow
and a chance for a normal life and it’s
their faces that persuade me that that
there’s still hope when we think about
the refugee crisis we think it’s too big
or it can’t be fixed but when we see
these faces and we see the self-evident
truth that we are all human we all need
the same things in life we need love we
need compassion and we need humanity
once we embrace this fundamental truth
once we see refugees as deserving the
same type of love as any one of us does
we will look for ways to help and we
will look for ways to find help remember
most of all the picture I showed you in
the beginning this is most of her now
when he sees me this is what Healing humanity looks like to me thank you
one of my medical missions in Jordan I
was providing medical care to refugees
and it began to rain I ran into a van
for cover and when I looked out there
was most of us staring at me
I still see his face I will never forget
the way he looked at me I saw fear
confusion helplessness he was standing
there barefoot in the mud holding a
soaked piece of bread to eat most of us
is one of the many children that I meet
during these medical missions they are
what the outside world calls a refugee
crisis all of us are aware of the crisis
and I’m not here today to lecture you or
to apply you with any more statistics I
am here today to share with you the
story of Mustafa and the countless other
children like Mustafa who live in
refugee camps across Palestine Jordan
Lebanon and Turkey their innocent faces
have changed me and changed my direction
in life they drew me into a completely
different life a better life but one I
never imagined I’d be in today I’m
someone who spends most of her free time
in refugee camps across the Middle East
helping people who have lost so much but
I wasn’t always like this
see the story of these children isn’t
about what we can do for them or what we
can bring them it’s about what they can
do for us and what they can give us if
we let them to understand how these
children changed my life I’m going to
share with you a little bit about my
background my parents are originally
from Palestine but I was born and raised
here in the United States my parents
instilled in my brothers and my sisters
and I a core set of values love your
neighbor
don’t lie don’t cheap and always give
back during Ramadan
every year since I can remember my
family and I would choose a charity to
donate to to help people who were in
need
my parents would remind me every day how
lucky I am to have food on the table so
giving back was part of my life growing
up but that wasn’t the only part the
other part the larger part was full of
school education and frankly making a
lot of money to buy what I want live how
I wanted to and be that strong
independent woman I’ve always dreamed of
becoming and today I’m a divisional
director of health and wellness in the
state of Washington and I’m pursuing my
doctorate in nursing practice and
leadership but my life in Washington and
the way I viewed that part of my life
changed three years ago when I got an
opportunity to host a seven-year-old boy
named Waseem from Gaza what seemed lived
in a tent with his family in a refugee
camp he was born with a congenital
deformity to his lower Lakes that left
him unable to walk he arrived at
Shriners Hospital in Spokane Washington
and he stayed there for about six months
to receive treatment when I first saw
was him I still remember his facial
expression he had that sad loss hopeless
look about him I wanted to do everything
possible to make what seemed happy I
bought him everything a seven-year-old
child could want but he would just look
at look at the items and put them down
and not play with them at first I never
understood why but then I understood
what will seem needed from me was love
support and to help him believe in
himself that he could do anything he
wanted to do I gave what seemed what he
needed from me what seemed felt
unstoppable like he could do anything
within six months what seemed was up
walking with prosthetics for the first
time in his life he learned the English
language he spoke Spanish too
he felt unstoppable like he was going to
do anything I go to school and today
what seem is in school for the first
time in his life seeing that positive
change
made me want to share what same story
and so I did I shared it on my social
media friends family people I’ve never
met before fell in love with Waseem
story and they fell in love with his
courage people would we share my posts
and reach out to me and tell me how
inspired they were because of what
seemed and they wanted to do more to
help I wanted to help more children like
Waseem
so I got an idea to start urging care
clinics in refugee camps I use social
media as my platform to recruit medical
professionals volunteers and to collect
enough donations to buy medical supplies
and care initially I thought I was only
going to get local volunteers but to my
surprise people from all over the world
reached out to me here I can only name a
few people that came with me on these
humanitarian missions from Spain doctor
Caliente doctor frioli from Italy dr.
Mario from Egypt dr. Hasan from from
Palestine dr. Maha and dr. Farzad but it
wasn’t only medical professionals who
joined our medical missions
it was photographers journalists
housewives office personnel the next
generation of leaders all of us had the
same need we wanted to help people who
needed us in our first medical mission
we said we setup urgent care clinics and
multiple different refugee camps and
provided medical care and provided aid
some of the aid we distributed were
school supplies books food baskets
clothes shoes basic human necessities in
this picture here dr. Faisal WA and ER
trauma doctor is attempting to remove a
foreign object from a little girl’s ear
and this picture a diabetic woman is
complaining of dizziness and short
a breath so she’s getting her blood
sugar checked but it isn’t easy to set
up these medical missions they take
months to plan I have to find the right
area the right location get clearance to
enter the area and get medical clearance
to treat them the people in the area my
volunteers and I have to travel
thousands of miles and we are at times
detained at the airport and held for
hours sometimes we’re denied entry into
the country
I personally was was detained for 17
hours in a jail like location in Lebanon
and denied entry all volunteers must
travel thousands of miles leave their
sheltered homes and lives to help people
who need the help
we paper own expenses we bring our own
equipment and we work every day for
seven days and in each area we visit we
do this not because we must because but
because the people inspire us in those
camps we are one with the people those
people inspire us to continue to do this
work in every refugee camp in
impoverished area that I have been in –
the first thing that I noticed when I
enter the camp is the children’s faces
they all have that same sad look about
them but then something changes they
feel like we’re there to like we care
about them we show them love we show
them compassion their faces change they
feel like they could trust us we turn
into their heroes and their faces turn
into laughter in these past three years
this is what has changed about me when I
close my eyes and try to sleep images of
these children run through my head I try
to catch their faces and pictures but I
can’t adequately describe the pain and
horror all these children go through
these faces push me to continue to do
this type of work
and to help give them a better tomorrow
and a chance for a normal life and it’s
their faces that persuade me that that
there’s still hope when we think about
the refugee crisis we think it’s too big
or it can’t be fixed but when we see
these faces and we see the self-evident
truth that we are all human we all need
the same things in life we need love we
need compassion and we need humanity
once we embrace this fundamental truth
once we see refugees as deserving the
same type of love as any one of us does
we will look for ways to help and we
will look for ways to find help remember
most of all the picture I showed you in
the beginning this is most of her now
when he sees me this is what Healing humanity looks like to me thank you
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