have you ever had someone tell your
story before I mean have you ever had
someone tell your story on your behalf
something deep something painful
something that mattered something where
if the story was told out of order or
without all the details it evokes a
strong emotion because it’s not right
you feel frustrated maybe it came up in
conversation with colleagues or friends
how your relationship broke down how you
didn’t get your job promotion have you
ever had someone tell your story and
distort it or maybe have you ever told
someone your story before in the hopes
that they would hear it and listen and
respond only to have them keep going
about their life as if they’d never
heard it well today we’re facing a
serious problem in the likes of this
when we think about the Syrian refugee
crisis and before I start let me note
that this is not discount the plight of
refugees and Uganda or Myanmar or North
Korea I’m talking about Syria for two
reasons first this is the largest crisis
of human displacement since the Second
World War and second it intersects with
my story so now I’m faced with this
great challenge because in order to tell
you my story today I have to enter in at
least a little bit to the stories of the
people that I’ve met and even though
they’ve all told me to come here and
tell you their stories what if I get it
wrong like what if they’d rather that I
told you about something that I’ve never
even heard about yet in their lives or
what if instead of standing here for 15
minutes I should go up to each one of
you after and tell you the full story
what if yesterday I received a text
message from the woman in this photo
she’s an English teacher from Syria
that’s her husband and two sons and she
said I want you to show them this photo
this is my husband and I said what is he
doing and she said he’s waving a red
card at the ocean and I still didn’t
understand and she said he’s a
professional referee and then I
understood what was going on show them
this photo tell them my story
I first heard about the Syrian refugee
crisis three years ago in Vancouver I
was on Facebook scrolling through my
feed when I saw this photo a Syrian
woman weeping and she was stood wearing
the same bench jacket that I wear all
the time except for mine is black and
hers is gray and she told her story it
went something like this she was about
to get into a plastic inflatable dinghy
vote to go to safety and she got scared
but the smugglers kept the money don’t
worry and she got in the boat but it was
too crowded and the captain said don’t
worry and then the water started coming
in the bottom of the boat and she was
one of the last people out and she’s in
the water with her husband don’t worry
and then he gives his life jacket to
someone else so another woman can
survive don’t worry
see I feel like we talked about this in
our culture all the time don’t worry
don’t worry don’t worry
and there’s truth to that like there’s
really some things we can’t control but
there’s also things that we can do so
sitting there I felt incredibly
disturbed like what am I supposed to do
sit here and go on about my night and
send one or five or 10 more text
messages to my friends or write one or
five or ten more academic essays about
who knows what well that is going on and
so I made a Facebook post because what
else is there to do hashtag help
refugees hashtag share this post
hashtag does this do anything maybe and
50 people shared it and one girl
commented and she said have you heard
about this lecture at UBC by Dan Heber
it’s about Syria do you want to come and
I said yeah let’s go single sentence
single sentence and so we went and the
room was buzzing with academics and
professionals and students who all
wanted to do something and this is some
of what we learned in addition to this
there are two million Syrian refugees in
Turkey right now 55% of whom are
children only 10% of those children are
in school and 70,000 babies have been
born in Turkey babies
so back to the story another student
came up and she talked about private
sponsorship I’m passionate about private
sponsorship she said this is how it
works she said single sentence single
sentence and so I researched it and
Canada is the only country in the world
with a citizen directed private
sponsorship of refugees program which
means that in a group of five or with a
church or a mosque you can sponsor
refugees and the paperwork looks like
this this is the paperwork to sponsor
eight refugees to Canada and I can tell
you that it’s rigorous it does not
happen overnight and going through this
process I thought to myself how would I
do this if this was me I don’t even know
where I would access this documentation
go through my filing cabinet find
references but then what about the
violence and what if I didn’t have those
documents sending more than what then
what happens so we got together and I
said I want to start a movement and she
said yes I do I want to do that too
single sentence single sentence so we
met together and we started up with a
single Facebook post not knowing what
would happen and that’s where a MS
refugee relief at UBC was born in the
first year we partnered with a local
church and a dedicated Vancouver family
to raise seventy two thousand dollars
collectively for a family of refugees
and I remember sitting at Granville
Island with one of the newcomers he was
my very same age and we sat there
looking out to the horizon at night and
I asked him what do you like about
Vancouver and he said it’s quiet and I
wondered what he must be thinking about
back at home so this summer I went to
Turkey because what happened after the
first family came we need to kept keep
going and we got an email a single email
it was quite serendipitous timing and
this Canadian girl who’d been in Turkey
before me told me I know for Refugees
and I’ve met them and they need help
– were newlyweds they met in elementary
school don’t we all love that and he’s a
biochemist and she makes handicrafts
like the bracelets that I’m wearing it’s
from her and they’re volunteering at
NGOs in Turkey and I’d never even heard
of
two thing before like when you think of
NGO you think privileged people going to
help but have you thought of refugees
helping refugees for five years in
Turkey I hadn’t and so I went there and
met them and we toured around Istanbul
for a day I was already in the area and
we had so much fun and we were laughing
and as Mustafa who you see in the photo
shared his testimony of atrocity after
atrocity he was still laughing and still
finding joy and I thought is this
allowed like somehow humor and atrocity
are incompatible so then I went to
Greece because I’d heard about it from
some girls in Abbotsford they told me
they went there before and they said
there’s scabies in the camp and the
coast guard shoots boats when they try
and come across the sea and I knew I
needed to go but I had this perception
in my head like oh I’m gonna get off the
plane and it’s gonna be dark and dreary
and dangerous and that’s what I saw it’s
beautiful isn’t it it’s kind of like
home okay I can do this single plane
ticket Greece so I arrived in Greece at
this refugee camp and my job was to take
care of the first arrivals so on the
first day 66 refugees came and lined up
and it was a strange juxtaposition
between hope and hopelessness some
children were smiling some were crying
a woman fainted and I felt this weird
sort of existential who-knows-what like
I just want to meet everyone and build
relationships but what is happening in
the background and how did all these
single sentences lead me here like the
single humans of New York Facebook post
and then the single sentence leading to
the private sponsorship conversation and
everyone coming together at UBC and now
this is happening what is even happening
and I remember one night three men came
up and they shook the fence and said
sister sister we need toilet paper and I
looked behind me and there were five
rolls of toilet paper and I gave them
each three or four pieces and they said
since your sister we need more we can’t
come back every time and I felt like a
criminal because there’s more refugees
coming every day but when is more toilet
paper going to come
this is a photo of me and my cousin here
in abbotsford when we were four and five
and we used to dress up after a bubble
bath and towel dresses and come out and
smile in my kitchen there we are and
there’s a moment that I’ll never forget
of a little girl named lien she’s four
years old and she came out and all her
glory and her towel dress after having
had a shower and her and her momma were
there and they were smiling but behind
her was a barbed wire cage and garbage
cans heaping with trash and her bathroom
looked something like this at least
that’s what Google says I never went in
probably should’ve but I heard about it
everyone told me and I know it’s true
because the water bottles that you see
on the floor are the exact same ones
that I gave out every day to the new
arrivals so I felt frustrated like what
am I supposed to do how can I go back to
school with this going on who’s gonna
translate French to English who’s going
to play with the kids bow after boat
after boat and I confide it into my
friend she came from Cameroon she was
pregnant with twins and single and I
told her I don’t know what to do and she
said go back to school
single sentence important sentence but I
didn’t want to so I came back the next
day I don’t know if I should go back
because really and she slapped me like
come on don’t you see there’s 2,600
people here that you need you to fight
and ten million more where they came
from like we learnt about before this is
the lifejacket graveyard in Mali voz
Greece and you can imagine what it
represents when we were there a dump
truck came with more and they come three
or four times a day and standing there
it’s almost overwhelming because how can
you feel such emotion like I can hardly
feel emotion for myself or the person
beside me and you see this and then
right on the other side of the mountain
is a beautiful beach town with Bellinis
and martinis and even in such geographic
proximity to what’s going on what do you
even do but this is what I want to share
about today the single sentence because
I’ve really come to believe that
everything that happens in the world is
some sort of result of the cognitive
unseen from our hearts and our minds
that comes out in a single sentence like
if Bashar al-assad were to stand up
today and announce the war is over there
will be peace then the violent turmoil
would start to fizzle out single
sentence but he didn’t say that so what
are we going to do with our single
sentences I received an email two weeks
ago from Killarney Secondary School in
Vancouver a single email it said hi I
heard about your group we want to start
one at our school and send all the
profits to refugees can we do this and I
said yes of course how did you hear of
us they said Google search single
sentence and I feel like it’s the fear
of what might happen if the single
sentence or idea doesn’t work out that
stops us some of the times it’s the
maybe space but then the next week I got
another email from Frank Hertz secondary
in school at Surry wanting to do the
exact same thing single sentence single
email single choice so I want to close
with this this is a photo of graffiti
and the refugee camp written by someone
who I don’t know who’s not here to tell
you their story take care of the people
single sentence have you ever had
someone tell your story thank you
[Applause]
you
story before I mean have you ever had
someone tell your story on your behalf
something deep something painful
something that mattered something where
if the story was told out of order or
without all the details it evokes a
strong emotion because it’s not right
you feel frustrated maybe it came up in
conversation with colleagues or friends
how your relationship broke down how you
didn’t get your job promotion have you
ever had someone tell your story and
distort it or maybe have you ever told
someone your story before in the hopes
that they would hear it and listen and
respond only to have them keep going
about their life as if they’d never
heard it well today we’re facing a
serious problem in the likes of this
when we think about the Syrian refugee
crisis and before I start let me note
that this is not discount the plight of
refugees and Uganda or Myanmar or North
Korea I’m talking about Syria for two
reasons first this is the largest crisis
of human displacement since the Second
World War and second it intersects with
my story so now I’m faced with this
great challenge because in order to tell
you my story today I have to enter in at
least a little bit to the stories of the
people that I’ve met and even though
they’ve all told me to come here and
tell you their stories what if I get it
wrong like what if they’d rather that I
told you about something that I’ve never
even heard about yet in their lives or
what if instead of standing here for 15
minutes I should go up to each one of
you after and tell you the full story
what if yesterday I received a text
message from the woman in this photo
she’s an English teacher from Syria
that’s her husband and two sons and she
said I want you to show them this photo
this is my husband and I said what is he
doing and she said he’s waving a red
card at the ocean and I still didn’t
understand and she said he’s a
professional referee and then I
understood what was going on show them
this photo tell them my story
I first heard about the Syrian refugee
crisis three years ago in Vancouver I
was on Facebook scrolling through my
feed when I saw this photo a Syrian
woman weeping and she was stood wearing
the same bench jacket that I wear all
the time except for mine is black and
hers is gray and she told her story it
went something like this she was about
to get into a plastic inflatable dinghy
vote to go to safety and she got scared
but the smugglers kept the money don’t
worry and she got in the boat but it was
too crowded and the captain said don’t
worry and then the water started coming
in the bottom of the boat and she was
one of the last people out and she’s in
the water with her husband don’t worry
and then he gives his life jacket to
someone else so another woman can
survive don’t worry
see I feel like we talked about this in
our culture all the time don’t worry
don’t worry don’t worry
and there’s truth to that like there’s
really some things we can’t control but
there’s also things that we can do so
sitting there I felt incredibly
disturbed like what am I supposed to do
sit here and go on about my night and
send one or five or 10 more text
messages to my friends or write one or
five or ten more academic essays about
who knows what well that is going on and
so I made a Facebook post because what
else is there to do hashtag help
refugees hashtag share this post
hashtag does this do anything maybe and
50 people shared it and one girl
commented and she said have you heard
about this lecture at UBC by Dan Heber
it’s about Syria do you want to come and
I said yeah let’s go single sentence
single sentence and so we went and the
room was buzzing with academics and
professionals and students who all
wanted to do something and this is some
of what we learned in addition to this
there are two million Syrian refugees in
Turkey right now 55% of whom are
children only 10% of those children are
in school and 70,000 babies have been
born in Turkey babies
so back to the story another student
came up and she talked about private
sponsorship I’m passionate about private
sponsorship she said this is how it
works she said single sentence single
sentence and so I researched it and
Canada is the only country in the world
with a citizen directed private
sponsorship of refugees program which
means that in a group of five or with a
church or a mosque you can sponsor
refugees and the paperwork looks like
this this is the paperwork to sponsor
eight refugees to Canada and I can tell
you that it’s rigorous it does not
happen overnight and going through this
process I thought to myself how would I
do this if this was me I don’t even know
where I would access this documentation
go through my filing cabinet find
references but then what about the
violence and what if I didn’t have those
documents sending more than what then
what happens so we got together and I
said I want to start a movement and she
said yes I do I want to do that too
single sentence single sentence so we
met together and we started up with a
single Facebook post not knowing what
would happen and that’s where a MS
refugee relief at UBC was born in the
first year we partnered with a local
church and a dedicated Vancouver family
to raise seventy two thousand dollars
collectively for a family of refugees
and I remember sitting at Granville
Island with one of the newcomers he was
my very same age and we sat there
looking out to the horizon at night and
I asked him what do you like about
Vancouver and he said it’s quiet and I
wondered what he must be thinking about
back at home so this summer I went to
Turkey because what happened after the
first family came we need to kept keep
going and we got an email a single email
it was quite serendipitous timing and
this Canadian girl who’d been in Turkey
before me told me I know for Refugees
and I’ve met them and they need help
– were newlyweds they met in elementary
school don’t we all love that and he’s a
biochemist and she makes handicrafts
like the bracelets that I’m wearing it’s
from her and they’re volunteering at
NGOs in Turkey and I’d never even heard
of
two thing before like when you think of
NGO you think privileged people going to
help but have you thought of refugees
helping refugees for five years in
Turkey I hadn’t and so I went there and
met them and we toured around Istanbul
for a day I was already in the area and
we had so much fun and we were laughing
and as Mustafa who you see in the photo
shared his testimony of atrocity after
atrocity he was still laughing and still
finding joy and I thought is this
allowed like somehow humor and atrocity
are incompatible so then I went to
Greece because I’d heard about it from
some girls in Abbotsford they told me
they went there before and they said
there’s scabies in the camp and the
coast guard shoots boats when they try
and come across the sea and I knew I
needed to go but I had this perception
in my head like oh I’m gonna get off the
plane and it’s gonna be dark and dreary
and dangerous and that’s what I saw it’s
beautiful isn’t it it’s kind of like
home okay I can do this single plane
ticket Greece so I arrived in Greece at
this refugee camp and my job was to take
care of the first arrivals so on the
first day 66 refugees came and lined up
and it was a strange juxtaposition
between hope and hopelessness some
children were smiling some were crying
a woman fainted and I felt this weird
sort of existential who-knows-what like
I just want to meet everyone and build
relationships but what is happening in
the background and how did all these
single sentences lead me here like the
single humans of New York Facebook post
and then the single sentence leading to
the private sponsorship conversation and
everyone coming together at UBC and now
this is happening what is even happening
and I remember one night three men came
up and they shook the fence and said
sister sister we need toilet paper and I
looked behind me and there were five
rolls of toilet paper and I gave them
each three or four pieces and they said
since your sister we need more we can’t
come back every time and I felt like a
criminal because there’s more refugees
coming every day but when is more toilet
paper going to come
this is a photo of me and my cousin here
in abbotsford when we were four and five
and we used to dress up after a bubble
bath and towel dresses and come out and
smile in my kitchen there we are and
there’s a moment that I’ll never forget
of a little girl named lien she’s four
years old and she came out and all her
glory and her towel dress after having
had a shower and her and her momma were
there and they were smiling but behind
her was a barbed wire cage and garbage
cans heaping with trash and her bathroom
looked something like this at least
that’s what Google says I never went in
probably should’ve but I heard about it
everyone told me and I know it’s true
because the water bottles that you see
on the floor are the exact same ones
that I gave out every day to the new
arrivals so I felt frustrated like what
am I supposed to do how can I go back to
school with this going on who’s gonna
translate French to English who’s going
to play with the kids bow after boat
after boat and I confide it into my
friend she came from Cameroon she was
pregnant with twins and single and I
told her I don’t know what to do and she
said go back to school
single sentence important sentence but I
didn’t want to so I came back the next
day I don’t know if I should go back
because really and she slapped me like
come on don’t you see there’s 2,600
people here that you need you to fight
and ten million more where they came
from like we learnt about before this is
the lifejacket graveyard in Mali voz
Greece and you can imagine what it
represents when we were there a dump
truck came with more and they come three
or four times a day and standing there
it’s almost overwhelming because how can
you feel such emotion like I can hardly
feel emotion for myself or the person
beside me and you see this and then
right on the other side of the mountain
is a beautiful beach town with Bellinis
and martinis and even in such geographic
proximity to what’s going on what do you
even do but this is what I want to share
about today the single sentence because
I’ve really come to believe that
everything that happens in the world is
some sort of result of the cognitive
unseen from our hearts and our minds
that comes out in a single sentence like
if Bashar al-assad were to stand up
today and announce the war is over there
will be peace then the violent turmoil
would start to fizzle out single
sentence but he didn’t say that so what
are we going to do with our single
sentences I received an email two weeks
ago from Killarney Secondary School in
Vancouver a single email it said hi I
heard about your group we want to start
one at our school and send all the
profits to refugees can we do this and I
said yes of course how did you hear of
us they said Google search single
sentence and I feel like it’s the fear
of what might happen if the single
sentence or idea doesn’t work out that
stops us some of the times it’s the
maybe space but then the next week I got
another email from Frank Hertz secondary
in school at Surry wanting to do the
exact same thing single sentence single
email single choice so I want to close
with this this is a photo of graffiti
and the refugee camp written by someone
who I don’t know who’s not here to tell
you their story take care of the people
single sentence have you ever had
someone tell your story thank you
[Applause]
you
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