0:00:00.812,0:00:02.449
So I started working

0:00:02.449,0:00:04.333
with refugees because I wanted

0:00:04.333,0:00:06.673
to make a difference,

0:00:06.673,0:00:08.080
and making a difference starts

0:00:08.080,0:00:10.436
with telling their stories.

0:00:10.436,0:00:11.926
So when I meet refugees,

0:00:11.926,0:00:14.726
I always ask them questions.

0:00:14.726,0:00:17.044
Who bombed your house?

0:00:17.044,0:00:19.697
Who killed your son?

0:00:19.697,0:00:23.741
Did the rest of your family make it out alive?

0:00:23.741,0:00:25.727
How are you coping

0:00:25.727,0:00:28.258
in your life in exile?

0:00:28.258,0:00:31.261
But there's one question that always seems to me

0:00:31.261,0:00:33.725
to be most revealing, and that is:

0:00:33.725,0:00:35.907
What did you take?

0:00:35.907,0:00:38.157
What was that most important thing

0:00:38.157,0:00:40.229
that you had to take with you

0:00:40.229,0:00:43.635
when the bombs were exploding in your town,

0:00:43.635,0:00:48.060
and the armed gangs were approaching your house?

0:00:48.060,0:00:50.665
A Syrian refugee boy I know

0:00:50.665,0:00:53.355
told me that he didn't hesitate

0:00:53.355,0:00:57.145
when his life was in imminent danger.

0:00:57.145,0:01:00.126
He took his high school diploma,

0:01:00.126,0:01:02.055
and later he told me why.

0:01:02.055,0:01:05.263
He said, "I took my high school diploma

0:01:05.263,0:01:08.469
because my life depended on it."

0:01:08.469,0:01:11.698
And he would risk his life to get that diploma.

0:01:11.698,0:01:15.380
On his way to school, he would dodge snipers.

0:01:15.380,0:01:17.895
His classroom sometimes shook

0:01:17.895,0:01:21.129
with the sound of bombs and shelling,

0:01:21.129,0:01:23.936
and his mother told me,

0:01:23.936,0:01:27.005
"Every day, I would say to him every morning,

0:01:27.005,0:01:29.931
'Honey, please don't go to school.'"

0:01:29.931,0:01:33.390
And when he insisted, she said,

0:01:33.390,0:01:37.362
"I would hug him as if it were for the last time."

0:01:37.362,0:01:39.392
But he said to his mother,

0:01:39.392,0:01:41.237
"We're all afraid,

0:01:41.237,0:01:44.128
but our determination to graduate

0:01:44.128,0:01:47.462
is stronger than our fear."

0:01:47.462,0:01:50.798
But one day, the family got terrible news.

0:01:50.798,0:01:53.532
Hany's aunt, his uncle and his cousin

0:01:53.532,0:01:56.221
were murdered in their homes for refusing

0:01:56.221,0:01:57.215
to leave their house.

0:01:57.215,0:02:00.080
Their throats were slit.

0:02:00.080,0:02:02.711
It was time to flee.

0:02:02.711,0:02:05.725
They left that day, right away, in their car,

0:02:05.725,0:02:07.586
Hany hidden in the back because they were facing

0:02:07.586,0:02:11.496
checkpoints of menacing soldiers.

0:02:11.496,0:02:15.208
And they would cross the border into Lebanon,

0:02:15.208,0:02:17.904
where they would find peace.

0:02:17.904,0:02:21.586
But they would begin a life of grueling hardship

0:02:21.586,0:02:24.590
and monotony.

0:02:24.590,0:02:27.289
They had no choice but to build a shack

0:02:27.289,0:02:28.622
on the side of a muddy field,

0:02:28.622,0:02:30.940
and this is Hany's brother Ashraf,

0:02:30.940,0:02:32.678
who plays outside.

0:02:32.678,0:02:35.100
And that day, they joined

0:02:35.100,0:02:40.304
the biggest population of refugees in the world,

0:02:40.304,0:02:43.330
in a country, Lebanon, that is tiny.

0:02:43.330,0:02:45.981
It only has four million citizens,

0:02:45.981,0:02:49.551
and there are one million Syrian refugees living there.

0:02:49.551,0:02:53.645
There's not a town, a city or a village

0:02:53.645,0:02:58.392
that is not host to Syrian refugees.

0:02:58.392,0:03:01.587
This is generosity and humanity

0:03:01.587,0:03:05.961
that is remarkable.

0:03:05.961,0:03:08.955
Think about it this way, proportionately.

0:03:08.955,0:03:10.711
It would be as if

0:03:10.711,0:03:13.702
the entire population of Germany,

0:03:13.702,0:03:15.567
80 million people,

0:03:15.567,0:03:20.957
would flee to the United States in just three years.

0:03:20.957,0:03:24.118
Half of the entire population of Syria

0:03:24.118,0:03:26.548
is now uprooted,

0:03:26.548,0:03:28.303
most of them inside the country.

0:03:28.303,0:03:30.598
Six and a half million people

0:03:30.598,0:03:33.320
have fled for their lives.

0:03:33.320,0:03:36.210
Over and well over three million people

0:03:36.210,0:03:37.932
have crossed the borders

0:03:37.932,0:03:41.475
and have found sanctuary[br]in the neighboring countries,

0:03:41.475,0:03:44.400
and only a small proportion, as you see,

0:03:44.400,0:03:48.534
have moved on to Europe.

0:03:48.534,0:03:51.205
What I find most worrying

0:03:51.205,0:03:55.131
is that half of all Syrian refugees are children.

0:03:55.131,0:03:57.369
I took this picture of this little girl.

0:03:57.369,0:04:00.294
It was just two hours after she had arrived

0:04:00.294,0:04:04.636
after a long trek from Syria into Jordan.

0:04:04.636,0:04:08.061
And most troubling of all

0:04:08.061,0:04:11.802
is that only 20 percent of [br]Syrian refugee children

0:04:11.802,0:04:15.277
are in school in Lebanon.

0:04:15.277,0:04:18.210
And yet, Syrian refugee children,

0:04:18.210,0:04:20.508
all refugee children tell us

0:04:20.508,0:04:25.574
education is the most important thing in their lives.

0:04:25.574,0:04:29.755
Why? Because it allows them to think of their future

0:04:29.755,0:04:33.150
rather than the nightmare of their past.

0:04:33.150,0:04:38.784
It allows them to think of hope rather than hatred.

0:04:38.784,0:04:40.813
I'm reminded of a recent visit I took

0:04:40.813,0:04:44.390
to a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq,

0:04:44.390,0:04:46.202
and I met this girl,

0:04:46.202,0:04:47.979
and I thought, "She's beautiful,"

0:04:47.979,0:04:49.686
and I went up to her and asked her,

0:04:49.686,0:04:51.634
"Can I take your picture?"

0:04:51.634,0:04:53.333
And she said yes,

0:04:53.333,0:04:56.370
but she refused to smile.

0:04:56.370,0:04:59.419
I think she couldn't,

0:04:59.419,0:05:02.925
because I think she must realize that she represents

0:05:02.925,0:05:07.369
a lost generation of Syrian refugee children,

0:05:07.369,0:05:11.950
a generation isolated and frustrated.

0:05:11.950,0:05:15.496
And yet, look at what they fled:

0:05:15.496,0:05:17.335
utter destruction,

0:05:17.335,0:05:22.914
buildings, industries, schools, roads, homes.

0:05:22.914,0:05:25.593
Hany's home was also destroyed.

0:05:25.593,0:05:28.806
This will need to be rebuilt

0:05:28.806,0:05:33.637
by architects, by engineers, by electricians.

0:05:33.637,0:05:37.284
Communities will need teachers and lawyers

0:05:37.284,0:05:41.525
and politicians interested in reconciliation

0:05:41.525,0:05:44.169
and not revenge.

0:05:44.169,0:05:45.924
Shouldn't this be rebuilt

0:05:45.924,0:05:49.015
by the people with the largest stake,

0:05:49.015,0:05:54.880
the societies in exile, the refugees?

0:05:54.880,0:05:57.634
Refugees have a lot of time

0:05:57.634,0:05:59.880
to prepare for their return.

0:05:59.880,0:06:02.595
You might imagine that being a refugee

0:06:02.595,0:06:05.103
is just a temporary state.

0:06:05.103,0:06:08.044
Well far from it.

0:06:08.044,0:06:11.560
With wars going on and on,

0:06:11.560,0:06:15.362
the average time a refugee will spend in exile

0:06:15.362,0:06:18.827
is 17 years.

0:06:18.827,0:06:22.415
Hany was into his second year in limbo

0:06:22.415,0:06:24.789
when I went to visit him recently,

0:06:24.789,0:06:28.546
and we conducted our entire conversation in English,

0:06:28.546,0:06:30.435
which he confessed to me he learned

0:06:30.435,0:06:34.089
from reading all of Dan Brown's novels

0:06:34.089,0:06:38.444
and from listening to American rap.

0:06:38.444,0:06:41.189
We also spent some nice moments of laughter

0:06:41.189,0:06:45.823
and fun with his beloved brother Ashraf.

0:06:45.823,0:06:47.444
But I'll never forget what he told me

0:06:47.444,0:06:50.868
when we ended our conversation that day.

0:06:50.868,0:06:53.281
He said to me,

0:06:53.281,0:06:58.810
"If I am not a student, I am nothing."

0:06:58.810,0:07:02.527
Hany is one of 50 million people

0:07:02.527,0:07:06.105
uprooted in this world today.

0:07:06.105,0:07:08.884
Never since World War II

0:07:08.884,0:07:14.151
have so many people been forcibly displaced.

0:07:14.151,0:07:16.780
So while we're making sweeping progress

0:07:16.780,0:07:18.881
in human health,

0:07:18.881,0:07:23.875
in technology, in education and design,

0:07:23.875,0:07:27.238
we are doing dangerously little

0:07:27.238,0:07:30.546
to help the victims

0:07:30.546,0:07:33.245
and we are doing far too little

0:07:33.245,0:07:35.281
to stop and prevent

0:07:35.281,0:07:38.690
the wars that are driving them from their homes.

0:07:38.690,0:07:43.133
And there are more and more victims.

0:07:43.133,0:07:46.267
Every day, on average,

0:07:46.267,0:07:48.449
by the end of this day,

0:07:48.449,0:07:52.297
32,000 people will be forcibly displaced

0:07:52.297,0:07:54.332
from their homes —

0:07:54.332,0:07:57.244
32,000 people.

0:07:59.271,0:08:03.020
They flee across borders like this one.

0:08:03.020,0:08:06.715
We captured this on the Syrian border to Jordan,

0:08:06.715,0:08:09.675
and this is a typical day.

0:08:13.588,0:08:18.492
Or they flee on unseaworthy and overcrowded boats,

0:08:18.492,0:08:20.292
risking their lives in this case

0:08:20.292,0:08:22.923
just to reach safety in Europe.

0:08:22.923,0:08:24.638
This Syrian young man

0:08:24.638,0:08:27.424
survived one of these boats that capsized —

0:08:27.424,0:08:29.047
most of the people drowned —

0:08:29.047,0:08:31.262
and he told us,

0:08:31.262,0:08:35.421
"Syrians are just looking for a quiet place

0:08:35.421,0:08:38.290
where nobody hurts you,

0:08:38.290,0:08:40.832
where nobody humiliates you,

0:08:40.832,0:08:43.543
and where nobody kills you."

0:08:43.543,0:08:46.761
Well, I think that should be the minimum.

0:08:46.761,0:08:49.888
How about a place of healing,

0:08:49.888,0:08:51.766
of learning,

0:08:51.766,0:08:55.160
and even opportunity?

0:08:56.832,0:08:58.856
Americans and Europeans

0:08:58.856,0:09:02.107
have the impression that proportionally

0:09:02.107,0:09:04.480
huge numbers of refugees are coming

0:09:04.480,0:09:06.500
to their country,

0:09:06.500,0:09:08.642
but the reality is

0:09:08.642,0:09:12.287
that 86 percent, the vast majority of refugees,

0:09:12.287,0:09:14.967
are living in the developing world,

0:09:14.967,0:09:19.520
in countries struggling with their own insecurity,

0:09:19.520,0:09:23.539
with their own issues of helping their own populations

0:09:23.539,0:09:25.662
and poverty.

0:09:25.662,0:09:28.935
So wealthy countries in the world should recognize

0:09:28.935,0:09:32.636
the humanity and the generosity of the countries

0:09:32.636,0:09:36.754
that are hosting so many refugees.

0:09:36.754,0:09:40.386
And all countries should make sure that no one

0:09:40.386,0:09:42.939
fleeing war and persecution

0:09:42.939,0:09:46.652
arrives at a closed border.

0:09:46.652,0:09:49.282
(Applause)

0:09:49.282,0:09:52.519
Thank you.

0:09:54.200,0:09:56.505
But there is something more that we can do

0:09:56.505,0:10:00.915
than just simply helping refugees survive.

0:10:00.915,0:10:04.446
We can help them thrive.

0:10:04.446,0:10:07.506
We should think of refugee camps and communities

0:10:07.506,0:10:11.713
as more than just temporary population centers

0:10:11.713,0:10:13.873
where people languish

0:10:13.873,0:10:16.782
waiting for the war to end.

0:10:16.782,0:10:20.511
Rather, as centers of excellence,

0:10:20.511,0:10:24.459
where refugees can triumph over their trauma

0:10:24.459,0:10:27.643
and train for the day that they can go home

0:10:27.643,0:10:30.724
as agents of positive change

0:10:30.724,0:10:35.122
and social transformation.

0:10:35.122,0:10:37.508
It makes so much sense,

0:10:37.508,0:10:41.817
but I'm reminded of the terrible war in Somalia

0:10:41.817,0:10:45.741
that has been raging on for 22 years.

0:10:45.741,0:10:48.250
And imagine living in this camp.

0:10:48.250,0:10:49.823
I visited this camp.

0:10:49.823,0:10:51.700
It's in Djibouti, neighboring Somalia,

0:10:51.700,0:10:54.244
and it was so remote

0:10:54.244,0:10:56.685
that we had to take a helicopter to fly there.

0:10:56.685,0:11:00.131
It was dusty and it was terribly hot.

0:11:00.131,0:11:02.425
And we went to visit a school

0:11:02.425,0:11:04.342
and started talking to the children,

0:11:04.342,0:11:06.936
and then I saw this girl across the room

0:11:06.936,0:11:08.785
who looked to me to be the same age

0:11:08.785,0:11:12.066
as my own daughter, and I went up and talked to her.

0:11:12.066,0:11:13.610
And I asked her the questions

0:11:13.610,0:11:15.789
that grown-ups ask kids,

0:11:15.789,0:11:17.712
like, "What is your favorite subject?"

0:11:17.712,0:11:20.367
and, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

0:11:20.367,0:11:23.664
And this is when her face turned blank,

0:11:23.664,0:11:25.714
and she said to me,

0:11:25.714,0:11:28.185
"I have no future.

0:11:28.185,0:11:31.162
My schooling days are over."

0:11:31.162,0:11:32.810
And I thought, there must be some misunderstanding,

0:11:32.810,0:11:35.119
so I turned to my colleague

0:11:35.119,0:11:37.217
and she confirmed to me

0:11:37.217,0:11:39.910
there is no funding for secondary education

0:11:39.910,0:11:42.180
in this camp.

0:11:42.180,0:11:43.649
And how I wished at that moment

0:11:43.649,0:11:45.967
that I could say to her,

0:11:45.967,0:11:48.372
"We will build you a school."

0:11:48.372,0:11:52.546
And I also thought, what a waste.

0:11:52.546,0:11:55.594
She should be and she is

0:11:55.594,0:11:59.925
the future of Somalia.

0:11:59.925,0:12:03.131
A boy named Jacob Atem

0:12:03.131,0:12:06.326
had a different chance, but not before he experienced

0:12:06.326,0:12:08.418
terribly tragedy.

0:12:08.418,0:12:10.882
He watched — this is in Sudan —

0:12:10.882,0:12:13.176
as his village — he was only seven years old —

0:12:13.176,0:12:15.558
burned to the ground, and he learned

0:12:15.558,0:12:17.397
that his mother and his father

0:12:17.397,0:12:19.386
and his entire family

0:12:19.386,0:12:21.250
were killed that day.

0:12:21.250,0:12:23.040
Only his cousin survived, and the two of them

0:12:23.040,0:12:25.320
walked for seven months —

0:12:25.320,0:12:27.170
this is boys like him —

0:12:27.170,0:12:30.378
chased and pursued by wild[br]animals and armed gangs,

0:12:30.378,0:12:32.738
and they finally made it to refugee camps

0:12:32.738,0:12:34.271
where they found safety,

0:12:34.271,0:12:36.394
and he would spend the next seven years

0:12:36.394,0:12:39.581
in Kenya in a refugee camp.

0:12:39.581,0:12:42.109
But his life changed

0:12:42.109,0:12:44.212
when he got the chance to be resettled

0:12:44.212,0:12:46.417
to the United States,

0:12:46.417,0:12:49.113
and he found love in a foster family

0:12:49.113,0:12:51.701
and he was able to go to school,

0:12:51.701,0:12:53.995
and he wanted me to share with you

0:12:53.995,0:12:55.563
this proud moment

0:12:55.563,0:12:57.868
when he graduated from university.

0:12:57.868,0:13:01.810
(Applause)

0:13:03.829,0:13:06.243
I spoke to him on Skype the other day,

0:13:06.243,0:13:11.237
and he was in his new university in Florida

0:13:11.237,0:13:14.236
pursuing his Ph.D. in public health,

0:13:14.236,0:13:17.306
and he proudly told me how he was able to raise

0:13:17.306,0:13:19.990
enough funds from the American public

0:13:19.990,0:13:24.575
to establish a health clinic back in his village

0:13:24.575,0:13:27.655
back home.

0:13:27.655,0:13:30.939
So I want to take you back to Hany.

0:13:30.939,0:13:33.160
When I told him I was going to have the chance

0:13:33.160,0:13:35.877
to speak to you here on the TED stage,

0:13:35.877,0:13:38.172
he allowed me to read you a poem

0:13:38.172,0:13:41.532
that he sent in an email to me.

0:13:41.532,0:13:44.449
He wrote:

0:13:45.270,0:13:47.830
"I miss myself,

0:13:47.830,0:13:50.335
my friends,

0:13:50.335,0:13:54.590
times of reading novels or writing poems,

0:13:54.590,0:13:59.515
birds and tea in the morning.

0:13:59.515,0:14:04.464
My room, my books, myself,

0:14:04.464,0:14:10.122
and everything that was making me smile.

0:14:10.122,0:14:14.250
Oh, oh, I had so many dreams

0:14:14.250,0:14:17.796
that were about to be realized."

0:14:19.323,0:14:21.551
So here is my point:

0:14:21.551,0:14:23.597
Not investing in refugees

0:14:23.597,0:14:29.241
is a huge missed opportunity.

0:14:29.241,0:14:31.092
Leave them abandoned,

0:14:31.092,0:14:36.439
and they risk exploitation and abuse,

0:14:36.439,0:14:39.712
and leave them unskilled and uneducated,

0:14:39.712,0:14:42.265
and delay by years the return

0:14:42.265,0:14:48.115
to peace and prosperity in their countries.

0:14:48.115,0:14:51.399
I believe how we treat the uprooted

0:14:51.399,0:14:55.972
will shape the future of our world.

0:14:55.972,0:14:58.926
The victims of war can hold the keys

0:14:58.926,0:15:01.447
to lasting peace,

0:15:01.447,0:15:03.256
and it's the refugees

0:15:03.256,0:15:06.923
who can stop the cycle of violence.

0:15:06.923,0:15:09.944
Hany is at a tipping point.

0:15:09.944,0:15:12.209
We would love to help him go to university

0:15:12.209,0:15:15.269
and to become an engineer,

0:15:15.269,0:15:19.116
but our funds are prioritized for the basics in life:

0:15:19.116,0:15:23.163
tents and blankets and mattresses and kitchen sets,

0:15:23.163,0:15:27.519
food rations and a bit of medicine.

0:15:27.519,0:15:30.916
University is a luxury.

0:15:30.916,0:15:35.253
But leave him to languish in this muddy field,

0:15:35.253,0:15:37.214
and he will become a member

0:15:37.214,0:15:40.636
of a lost generation.

0:15:40.636,0:15:45.340
Hany's story is a tragedy,

0:15:45.340,0:15:49.073
but it doesn't have to end that way.

0:15:49.073,0:15:51.450
Thank you.

0:15:51.450,0:15:55.045
(Applause)