WEBVTT

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Cristian Sánchez: Remember
when we were children?

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We had fun playing simple games

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like hide-and-seek and tag.

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Everything was so simple, right?

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Our only concern

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was to keep ourselves entertained,
to keep ourselves busy.

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And if there was nothing to do, 
it didn't matter

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because with just a piece
of paper and a pencil,

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thanks to our boundless imagination,

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we were capable of turning ourselves into
a sidekick of our favourite superhero

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or even better, into the hero himself.

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But of course, 
not every child in the world

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has these opportunities.

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Where we see shooting stars,

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they pray to be one of them.

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In this case, we are referring to
the Middle East,

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where these children
have to live in a war alien to them.

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If they are lucky and their family
has the necessary resources,

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they can leave the country.

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But what if their family
doesn't have the means to do that?

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They only have two options.

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The first one is to wait 
for the war to end,

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if they survive it.

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The second option they have
is for a terrorist group to kidnap them,

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indoctrinate them, train them,

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and send them to the front
at the age of 15.

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Andrea Rueda: But when they finally
make it to Europe,

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their situation is not exactly 
filled with hope.

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They find out that
for the foreseeable future,

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they are stuck in a fenced camp 
away from the city,

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with no possibility
of either leisure or work,

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and where their basic needs
are miraculously covered.

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We visited the camps in and around Athens
in order to assess their situation.

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We have met a lot of children
living in these bleak conditions.

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And we want to show you some of the cases
we consider most significant.

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The first one is Firas, this child.

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Firas left Syria at the age of nine.

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He and his family 
threw themselves into the sea.

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He travelled by sea 
via Turkey and Macedonia

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over a period of three years, 
until the age of 12

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when he got to settle in Athens.

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But Firas doesn't know how to write,

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because he spent the fundamental 
years of his education

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moving from one place to another.

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Firas wants to make friends

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because he hasn't had
a group of friends either,

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for the same reason.

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When we arrived,


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the first thing Firas did
was to approach us and say,

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'Come play with me. I want friends.'

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And he immediately took us
towards the other kids

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who were also there,
in the Port of Piraeus.

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This helped us a lot 
in approaching the others

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and creating an emotional bond with them.

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Firas was always eager to learn.

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He always wanted to play board games
and wanted to learn how to play cards.

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He was such a charming child.

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We enjoyed spending time with his family.

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He always offered us coffee, 
tea, dinner at his place.

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All because he loved to have friends
and to gather them with his family,

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that was his most important bond
and actually the only one he had there.

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Another very special case
was Neka, this little girl.

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Neka is Afghan, she is nine years old,

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and the most precocious girl in the world.

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Neka loved to make necklaces and bracelets
and to give them away

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so everyone could look
as lovely as she did.

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Neka had two important wishes:

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one was to go to Germany,
just like everyone there,

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and the other one was to sleep in a hotel

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because for months, she was sleeping
in a camping tent at the port

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along with her family.

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The last time I saw Neka

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was the day I got to the port,
and her dad said to me,

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'We got our passports back;
we are being deported.

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We didn't get asylum, so we need 
to return to Afghanistan.'

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Devastated, I approached Neka, hugged her,

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and she said to me happily,
'Will you visit me when I get to Germany?'

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I felt incredibly sad.

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Neka had a younger sister too.

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She was two years old,

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so she had been born during their journey
from one place to another,

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and she's one of the few girls
that I've ever seen

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who never laughs or plays.

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She was always sick.

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She always had a fever, 
she was always crying -

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a two-year-old girl.

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Cristian Sánchez: The children were not 
just looking for us during game time,

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but also when we were
performing our duties,

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such as food distribution, cleaning work,

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or like in this case, when we
were building a vegetable garden.

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They used to run like crazy
asking if they could do something to help

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because they saw us in the camp,

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helping them tirelessly day and night,

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so they felt the need to help us

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so they could feel useful
by helping us in our work in return.

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Because, imagine what it must be like
to live for months in a fenced field,

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completely isolated, 
and having nothing to do.

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Naturally, they can go out.

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If they're lucky, the nearest town
is 31 miles away.

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But playing was not everything

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and helping us in our work 
was not everything either.

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There were children whose father, 
for one reason or another,

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was not there with them.

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Those children had to help 
their mother and siblings

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in the daily housework:

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chores like queuing up 
at food distribution points,

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queuing up to do the laundry,

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being at the nappy 
and baby food distributions,

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milk distribution when there was milk.

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And yet, there is something worse:

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the cases where they don't have 
a mother, a father, or siblings,

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so they have no family 
to take care of them and protect them.

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There is the case of Abdul Haid.

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Unfortunately, we don't have
an actual photo of him,

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but we think this photo 
is very representative.

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Abdul Haid is a 16-year-old boy

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who spent most of his time 
alone in his tent,

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either listening to music

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or when he had the chance,
talking with his family on the phone.

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The few moments he got out
of his tent to meet us,

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he greeted us with a hug 
every single time.

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He was obviously affectionate
and needed to receive it also.

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While he was talking to us,
he never let go of our hands.

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And I believe that he looked upon us, 
not quite as a father figure,

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because he already had a father,

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but he saw us as his protectors.

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All this is the reason 
why we are here today.

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Because when someone
has been out there and back,

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their reality, the way they face problems,
the way they see life in general

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change completely.

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We left friends there.

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We have left behind people 
who shared moments with us,

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both good and bad.

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And you can't relax 
when you return from there,

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because you feel the need to be with them

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even though, sadly, we don't have
the resources or the capacity

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to resolve their problems,

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but we can stand by them, helping them
through these difficult times.

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For all these reasons,
we came up with this initiative.

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It consists of giving a toy

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to every defenceless child out there
in the toughest refugee camps.

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Andrea Rueda: We are talking
about 'Let's Be Game Changers',

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developed in Athens.

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One day, Cristian said,
'I want to return here on Christmas Day

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so we can give them toys
and make them happy for once.'

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And I said, 'I'll help you.'

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With the help of others, we started 
a project to make this happen.

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We organise cultural events 
with elements from the local culture,

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from the different cities
in which we work.

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We are doing concerts,
improvisation theatre plays,

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poetry readings.

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The money we collect
will be taken there and used to buy toys

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to help restore hope for these children.

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They can have the joy of receiving a gift,
something that belongs to them,

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for them to play with by themselves 
or to share with other children

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so that they can get back 
some of the childhood they have lost.

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You may wonder why we
don't collect toys instead of money.

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And the answer is very simple.

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If we collect all the toys 
and have to transport them

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all the way out there,

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we will end up spending
a lot of money on freight

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because it's so expensive.

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It's much easier to take the money there
and spend it there, making a big saving.

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We must also keep in mind

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that things over there
are not perfectly organised,

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because it's so difficult.

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New people arrive, others leave, 
and numbers fluctuate.

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New children may arrive

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and depending on their age and gender,

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we want to buy the appropriate toys
for them, not get random toys.

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So, that is why.

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We must also keep in mind the possibility 
that by the time we get there,

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the need for toys 
may have already been covered.

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For example, a truck full of toys
may have arrived the day before.

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So, we won't deliver more toys
as that doesn't make sense.

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We'd have to take them to another camp

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and distribute them according 
to that camp's population.

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Cristian Sánchez: We know there is a lack
of things more important than toys.

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For example, lack of food and health care.

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Also, as you know, there are many NGOs,
organisations, and associations

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who are committed to raising funds 
and sending them there,

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where the NGO field operators 
distribute food and medicine.

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We wanted to do something different,
focusing on the children,

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because we know that a toy 
can bring joy to a child's life.

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It can restore the love for games

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and help distract the child 
from its everyday reality.

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It can also help the child
make new friends through play.

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We want children to go back 
to being children, like this.

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If we stop ignoring the situation
and accept what we see around us,

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we could be that shooting star
we were talking about before,

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bringing a glimmer of hope

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to all the children
who lost their happiness long ago.

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To help them to continue 
being the children they are,

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let's be game changers.

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Thank you so much for your attention.

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(Applause)