I believe everyone in this room wants to
make a difference but how sometimes the
issues in our world can seem so complex
and it can feel futile to even try but
we all try of course as a humanitarian
photographer and also as a consultant to
fight against human trafficking I’ve
worked with nonprofit organizations all
over the world on multi-million dollar
projects and we’ve empowered women and
girls and we’ve fought against problems
like forced child marriage and slavery
and I’m so glad we do but still I often
wonder what is my impact really am I
making a difference in the world but
then I started to think about the
healing power of love something
inexplicable happens when love and
compassion are exchanged between humans
one on one and that’s when I thought
what if I what I think of love as my
very own super power a super power I
could use to heal the world love is an
action verb right superheroes are action
heroes so love is something that we do
in the spring of 1999 dating myself now
I made a decision they would change the
course of my life forever
as I sat in my living room in Los
Angeles watching the news coverage of
the refugees fleeing the war in Kosovo
and your rational fear gripped me I
thought to myself this is going to be
out of the news in two weeks
I’m gonna forget just like everyone else
but what could I do
that evening I sat down with my 11 year
old son Duncan and I told him about the
ethnic Albanians fleeing the violence in
Kosovo how they’d seen their homes and
their villages burn down and how they
had to run for weeks through the
freezing mountain passes to refugee
camps on the other side of the border in
Albania and then I asked him I said what
do you think we could do how can we
support survivors
it was terrible war he said let’s send
toys that’s a wonderful idea
beautiful idea but how I was a single
mom two children I had my daughter Daisy
was five at the time and she’s now doing
humanitarian work very proud of her I I
was working as a commercial actress in
Hollywood and I was living on residuals
that barely trickled in at the time I
just didn’t have it I couldn’t afford it
but then my son turned to me and he said
mom I had $200 in my savings account
let’s use that that’s love when an
eleven-year-old chooses to spend his
entire life savings on toys for children
and he’s never met I’d say he was using
his superpower
so my big-hearted son and I went
shopping but meanwhile I discovered that
Albania was in a state of anarchy and
with the chaos and the corruption there
was pretty much no chance those toys
were gonna make it into their refugee
camps but which they were intended there
was only one way to ensure their safe
passage they’d have to be hand-delivered
so what I did next can only be described
or a bizarre vacation which is continued
to this day over the next month
I got our passports we got immunized and
I somehow managed to rent out my tiny
Hollywood house for precisely one month
this was before Airbnb and I took my
rent money and I bought two airline
tickets and with a cheap film camera
remember film with a broken light meter
and fake Press Pass and a lens that was
massive it it they look like a bazooka
not ideal for a war zone and with that
we took off and we embarked on what
would become the most important trip of
our lives it was June and NATO had just
started their bombing campaign
thunderous fighter jets roared above us
back and forth back and forth as we
traveled on a ferry from Italy to
Albania crossing the Adriatic Sea on a
ferry swarming with the Italian Red
Cross and a variety of relief aid
organizations and there was this this
altruistic energy and camaraderie with
so many rushing in to aid to bring aid
but there’s also a very real sense of
danger and and this is when it really
hit me what I was doing I was going to a
war-torn third-world country to deliver
toys to refugees with my young son was I
crazy and and when we arrived the first
three rows of tents were occupied by
Kosovar prisoners three days earlier
they had been released from the Yugoslav
prison camp essentially a concentration
camp where they had been starved and
tortured for for being Albanian it was
intense and I was too intimidated to
talk to any of them so I moved on to the
next section of tents which were set
aside for families although I most
lowing saw mothers and children standing
around looking
[Music]
traumatized shocked worn out
but the first refugee that I spoke with
was an 81 year old man named Sylar Jew
Sufi dimers two sons and 11
grandchildren we’re still missing he
told me how they had been dragged from
their homes and herded into the center
of town with hundreds of other families
and where they’d been beaten and
ridiculed and then he told me about a
pregnant woman had gone into labor and
they refused to let her go to a hospital
she was forced to give birth in the
middle of the crowd with no medical
attention and then they held up a
six-month-old baby and they shot him in
the head
now will you leave they left
tzemre had to walk for 35 days through
the mountains 81 years old and then when
he arrived at the border he had to wait
for three more weeks hoping to find his
children I tried not to cry like I’m
trying not to cry right now
I couldn’t hide my tears I felt like my
heart would fall out of my chest what
could I do
what could I do I had nothing I had
nothing what could I offer him I was
just a mom pretending to be a
photographer all I could do is hold his
hand and listen the stories we heard in
the refugee camps were devastating and
not particularly appropriate for my
son’s awareness but what really shocked
me was my own lack of awareness I was
educated I thought I was aware but I
could never go back to being who I was
after having seen firsthand the reality
of ethnic cleansing standing in that
camp with my son by my side I’ve vowed
to do whatever it took to become a voice
as you can imagine that decision changed
my life after that I just threw myself
in that every conflict zone and every
humanitarian crisis I could find which
was interesting on my income but it led
us on a pretty awesome journey because I
began to travel with my children in the
attempt to learn an attempt to
understand and attempt to bring
so in Haiti we learned about a cruel
tradition of rest of Acts form a
modern-day child slavery we also spent
time with orphans who’d been abandoned
due to extreme poverty and very big
issue there much of the world in Uganda
and Sudan we met with child soldiers
former child soldiers who’d been
previously enslaved by Joseph Kony and
the Lord’s Resistance Army and worked
with them as I tried to rebuild their
lives and in Nepal I got to meet with a
group of women survivors women who had
escaped sex trafficking and are now
working to create new laws to support
other young girls and keep them from
exploitation was in these moments that
my passion my passion to bring awareness
to human rights issues and inspire
others to action became very clearly
defined in these moments not because I
was taking great photos or doing
important work now my life’s purpose was
defined by the moments I spent just
sitting and listening and as I listened
I got to observe the love and the
compassion that so many people have for
one another on this planet and in many
cases we were oftentimes
abeyance and that love and our travels
but it’s true
the challenges are tough and they are
real but every single one of us has in
us the power to make a difference the
power to make a positive meaningful
impact on our struggling world and
what’s so exciting and so great is we
don’t need any special training or
education in order to be experts in
loving servanthood we’re already all
experts we all have the ability to
succeed and to change the world in this
way there was an interesting study done
where the homeless were asked what is
the hardest part about living on the
streets overwhelmingly they crossed off
not being seen being invisible feeling
like I don’t matter not being seen or
heard was worse for them than being cold
and hungry we all need to know that we
matter so during the Kosovo war I
printed up a fake press press and I
brought my son to the refugee camps I
had no clue what I was doing do you
think he’s flirting with me or laughing
at my ridiculous lens I wasn’t yet an
expert in human trafficking or in
photography my son just wanted to bring
toys or give toys to the children to
ease their pain which was amazing by the
way to see him 11 years old out there
passing out toys and connecting with
these these kids and they were so
appreciative and so excited and
I just wanted to let the refugees know
that we care and then we wouldn’t forget
them I believed somehow that mattered I
still do
I’ve now traveled to over 70 countries
mostly in the developing world
humanitarian projects I’m proud of the
work that I do but still I believe that
my greatest moments my best impact my
best contribution was was in the moments
where I spent just engaged with people
one on one giving them a chance to share
their personal stories our personal
struggles giving them a voice because I
know that all humans need to know that
they matter and I know and we know that
all people need to be loved and we all
have the potential for greatness
absolute greatness when it comes to
loving others proactively I like to
think that I’ve matured a little since
that first trip to Albania
years ago I don’t lie and cheat my way
into refugee camps anymore but I’m still
very much driven by the same passion I
had to connect with people which
sometimes gets me in a little trouble
actually last year I did sneak into a
reading a village in Myanmar foolishly
I tried to ride a rented bike with flat
tires around the military checkpoints
tried to sneak around on extraordinarily
hot day and once I arrived in the
village I was passing out from heat
exhaustion just a little embarrassing
but when I arrived there oh he knows
were there to take care of me and they
were so kind
I’m so gracious as they nursed me back
to health and gave me water and cooled
me off and shared their food with me and
then they shared with me their own
stories of ethnic cleansing a few months
ago I heard that their village may also
have been burned down to the ground by
the military knife I hate not knowing
the friends I made that day are ok but
I’d like to say to the Roja Muslims I
had the honor of meeting that day we
have not forgotten you many I hope you
know that many are fighting for your
rights and for your freedom we hear you
and we see never never underestimate the
power of bold proactive love so what can
we as individuals contribute to our
aspiring and hopeful world this world
first we must know that love is always
always more powerful than hate and
second we can embrace our inner
superhero because when it comes to
making a difference we are all
superheroes and love is our superpower
we can heal the world one person at a time one by one with our hearts
make a difference but how sometimes the
issues in our world can seem so complex
and it can feel futile to even try but
we all try of course as a humanitarian
photographer and also as a consultant to
fight against human trafficking I’ve
worked with nonprofit organizations all
over the world on multi-million dollar
projects and we’ve empowered women and
girls and we’ve fought against problems
like forced child marriage and slavery
and I’m so glad we do but still I often
wonder what is my impact really am I
making a difference in the world but
then I started to think about the
healing power of love something
inexplicable happens when love and
compassion are exchanged between humans
one on one and that’s when I thought
what if I what I think of love as my
very own super power a super power I
could use to heal the world love is an
action verb right superheroes are action
heroes so love is something that we do
in the spring of 1999 dating myself now
I made a decision they would change the
course of my life forever
as I sat in my living room in Los
Angeles watching the news coverage of
the refugees fleeing the war in Kosovo
and your rational fear gripped me I
thought to myself this is going to be
out of the news in two weeks
I’m gonna forget just like everyone else
but what could I do
that evening I sat down with my 11 year
old son Duncan and I told him about the
ethnic Albanians fleeing the violence in
Kosovo how they’d seen their homes and
their villages burn down and how they
had to run for weeks through the
freezing mountain passes to refugee
camps on the other side of the border in
Albania and then I asked him I said what
do you think we could do how can we
support survivors
it was terrible war he said let’s send
toys that’s a wonderful idea
beautiful idea but how I was a single
mom two children I had my daughter Daisy
was five at the time and she’s now doing
humanitarian work very proud of her I I
was working as a commercial actress in
Hollywood and I was living on residuals
that barely trickled in at the time I
just didn’t have it I couldn’t afford it
but then my son turned to me and he said
mom I had $200 in my savings account
let’s use that that’s love when an
eleven-year-old chooses to spend his
entire life savings on toys for children
and he’s never met I’d say he was using
his superpower
so my big-hearted son and I went
shopping but meanwhile I discovered that
Albania was in a state of anarchy and
with the chaos and the corruption there
was pretty much no chance those toys
were gonna make it into their refugee
camps but which they were intended there
was only one way to ensure their safe
passage they’d have to be hand-delivered
so what I did next can only be described
or a bizarre vacation which is continued
to this day over the next month
I got our passports we got immunized and
I somehow managed to rent out my tiny
Hollywood house for precisely one month
this was before Airbnb and I took my
rent money and I bought two airline
tickets and with a cheap film camera
remember film with a broken light meter
and fake Press Pass and a lens that was
massive it it they look like a bazooka
not ideal for a war zone and with that
we took off and we embarked on what
would become the most important trip of
our lives it was June and NATO had just
started their bombing campaign
thunderous fighter jets roared above us
back and forth back and forth as we
traveled on a ferry from Italy to
Albania crossing the Adriatic Sea on a
ferry swarming with the Italian Red
Cross and a variety of relief aid
organizations and there was this this
altruistic energy and camaraderie with
so many rushing in to aid to bring aid
but there’s also a very real sense of
danger and and this is when it really
hit me what I was doing I was going to a
war-torn third-world country to deliver
toys to refugees with my young son was I
crazy and and when we arrived the first
three rows of tents were occupied by
Kosovar prisoners three days earlier
they had been released from the Yugoslav
prison camp essentially a concentration
camp where they had been starved and
tortured for for being Albanian it was
intense and I was too intimidated to
talk to any of them so I moved on to the
next section of tents which were set
aside for families although I most
lowing saw mothers and children standing
around looking
[Music]
traumatized shocked worn out
but the first refugee that I spoke with
was an 81 year old man named Sylar Jew
Sufi dimers two sons and 11
grandchildren we’re still missing he
told me how they had been dragged from
their homes and herded into the center
of town with hundreds of other families
and where they’d been beaten and
ridiculed and then he told me about a
pregnant woman had gone into labor and
they refused to let her go to a hospital
she was forced to give birth in the
middle of the crowd with no medical
attention and then they held up a
six-month-old baby and they shot him in
the head
now will you leave they left
tzemre had to walk for 35 days through
the mountains 81 years old and then when
he arrived at the border he had to wait
for three more weeks hoping to find his
children I tried not to cry like I’m
trying not to cry right now
I couldn’t hide my tears I felt like my
heart would fall out of my chest what
could I do
what could I do I had nothing I had
nothing what could I offer him I was
just a mom pretending to be a
photographer all I could do is hold his
hand and listen the stories we heard in
the refugee camps were devastating and
not particularly appropriate for my
son’s awareness but what really shocked
me was my own lack of awareness I was
educated I thought I was aware but I
could never go back to being who I was
after having seen firsthand the reality
of ethnic cleansing standing in that
camp with my son by my side I’ve vowed
to do whatever it took to become a voice
as you can imagine that decision changed
my life after that I just threw myself
in that every conflict zone and every
humanitarian crisis I could find which
was interesting on my income but it led
us on a pretty awesome journey because I
began to travel with my children in the
attempt to learn an attempt to
understand and attempt to bring
so in Haiti we learned about a cruel
tradition of rest of Acts form a
modern-day child slavery we also spent
time with orphans who’d been abandoned
due to extreme poverty and very big
issue there much of the world in Uganda
and Sudan we met with child soldiers
former child soldiers who’d been
previously enslaved by Joseph Kony and
the Lord’s Resistance Army and worked
with them as I tried to rebuild their
lives and in Nepal I got to meet with a
group of women survivors women who had
escaped sex trafficking and are now
working to create new laws to support
other young girls and keep them from
exploitation was in these moments that
my passion my passion to bring awareness
to human rights issues and inspire
others to action became very clearly
defined in these moments not because I
was taking great photos or doing
important work now my life’s purpose was
defined by the moments I spent just
sitting and listening and as I listened
I got to observe the love and the
compassion that so many people have for
one another on this planet and in many
cases we were oftentimes
abeyance and that love and our travels
but it’s true
the challenges are tough and they are
real but every single one of us has in
us the power to make a difference the
power to make a positive meaningful
impact on our struggling world and
what’s so exciting and so great is we
don’t need any special training or
education in order to be experts in
loving servanthood we’re already all
experts we all have the ability to
succeed and to change the world in this
way there was an interesting study done
where the homeless were asked what is
the hardest part about living on the
streets overwhelmingly they crossed off
not being seen being invisible feeling
like I don’t matter not being seen or
heard was worse for them than being cold
and hungry we all need to know that we
matter so during the Kosovo war I
printed up a fake press press and I
brought my son to the refugee camps I
had no clue what I was doing do you
think he’s flirting with me or laughing
at my ridiculous lens I wasn’t yet an
expert in human trafficking or in
photography my son just wanted to bring
toys or give toys to the children to
ease their pain which was amazing by the
way to see him 11 years old out there
passing out toys and connecting with
these these kids and they were so
appreciative and so excited and
I just wanted to let the refugees know
that we care and then we wouldn’t forget
them I believed somehow that mattered I
still do
I’ve now traveled to over 70 countries
mostly in the developing world
humanitarian projects I’m proud of the
work that I do but still I believe that
my greatest moments my best impact my
best contribution was was in the moments
where I spent just engaged with people
one on one giving them a chance to share
their personal stories our personal
struggles giving them a voice because I
know that all humans need to know that
they matter and I know and we know that
all people need to be loved and we all
have the potential for greatness
absolute greatness when it comes to
loving others proactively I like to
think that I’ve matured a little since
that first trip to Albania
years ago I don’t lie and cheat my way
into refugee camps anymore but I’m still
very much driven by the same passion I
had to connect with people which
sometimes gets me in a little trouble
actually last year I did sneak into a
reading a village in Myanmar foolishly
I tried to ride a rented bike with flat
tires around the military checkpoints
tried to sneak around on extraordinarily
hot day and once I arrived in the
village I was passing out from heat
exhaustion just a little embarrassing
but when I arrived there oh he knows
were there to take care of me and they
were so kind
I’m so gracious as they nursed me back
to health and gave me water and cooled
me off and shared their food with me and
then they shared with me their own
stories of ethnic cleansing a few months
ago I heard that their village may also
have been burned down to the ground by
the military knife I hate not knowing
the friends I made that day are ok but
I’d like to say to the Roja Muslims I
had the honor of meeting that day we
have not forgotten you many I hope you
know that many are fighting for your
rights and for your freedom we hear you
and we see never never underestimate the
power of bold proactive love so what can
we as individuals contribute to our
aspiring and hopeful world this world
first we must know that love is always
always more powerful than hate and
second we can embrace our inner
superhero because when it comes to
making a difference we are all
superheroes and love is our superpower
we can heal the world one person at a time one by one with our hearts
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